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The SPJ Code of Ethics is voluntarily embraced by thousands of journalists, regardless of place or platform, and is widely used in newsrooms and classrooms as a guide for ethical behavior. The code is intended not as a set of "rules" but as a resource for ethical decision-making. It is not — nor can it be under the First Amendment — legally enforceable. For an expanded explanation, please follow this link .

For journalism instructors and others interested in presenting ethical dilemmas for debate and discussion, SPJ has a useful resource. We've been collecting a number of case studies for use in workshops. The Ethics AdviceLine operated by the Chicago Headline Club and Loyola University also has provided a number of examples. There seems to be no shortage of ethical issues in journalism these days. Please feel free to use these examples in your classes, speeches, columns, workshops or other modes of communication.

Kobe Bryant’s Past: A Tweet Too Soon? On January 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant died at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash in the Los Angeles area. While the majority of social media praised Bryant after his death, within a few hours after the story broke, Felicia Sonmez, a reporter for The Washington Post , tweeted a link to an article from 2003 about the allegations of sexual assault against Bryant. The question: Is there a limit to truth-telling? How long (if at all) should a journalist wait after a person’s death before resurfacing sensitive information about their past?

A controversial apology After photographs of a speech and protests at Northwestern University appeared on the university's newspaper's website, some of the participants contacted the newspaper to complain. It became a “firestorm,” — first from students who felt victimized, and then, after the newspaper apologized, from journalists and others who accused the newspaper of apologizing for simply doing its job. The question: Is an apology the appropriate response? Is there something else the student journalists should have done?

Using the ‘Holocaust’ Metaphor People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is a nonprofit animal rights organization known for its controversial approach to communications and public relations. In 2003, PETA launched a new campaign, named “Holocaust on Your Plate,” that compares the slaughter of animals for human use to the murder of 6 million Jews in WWII. The question: Is “Holocaust on Your Plate” ethically wrong or a truthful comparison?

Aaargh! Pirates! (and the Press) As collections of songs, studio recordings from an upcoming album or merely unreleased demos, are leaked online, these outlets cover the leak with a breaking story or a blog post. But they don’t stop there. Rolling Stone and Billboard often also will include a link within the story to listen to the songs that were leaked. The question: If Billboard and Rolling Stone are essentially pointing readers in the right direction, to the leaked music, are they not aiding in helping the Internet community find the material and consume it?

Reigning on the Parade Frank Whelan, a features writer who also wrote a history column for the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call , took part in a gay rights parade in June 2006 and stirred up a classic ethical dilemma. The situation raises any number of questions about what is and isn’t a conflict of interest. The question: What should the “consequences” be for Frank Whelan?

Controversy over a Concert Three former members of the Eagles rock band came to Denver during the 2004 election campaign to raise money for a U.S. Senate candidate, Democrat Ken Salazar. John Temple, editor and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, advised his reporters not to go to the fundraising concerts. The question: Is it fair to ask newspaper staffers — or employees at other news media, for that matter — not to attend events that may have a political purpose? Are the rules different for different jobs at the news outlet?

Deep Throat, and His Motive The Watergate story is considered perhaps American journalism’s defining accomplishment. Two intrepid young reporters for The Washington Post , carefully verifying and expanding upon information given to them by sources they went to great lengths to protect, revealed brutally damaging information about one of the most powerful figures on Earth, the American president. The question: Is protecting a source more important than revealing all the relevant information about a news story?

When Sources Won’t Talk The SPJ Code of Ethics offers guidance on at least three aspects of this dilemma. “Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error.” One source was not sufficient in revealing this information. The question: How could the editors maintain credibility and remain fair to both sides yet find solid sources for a news tip with inflammatory allegations?

A Suspect “Confession” John Mark Karr, 41, was arrested in mid-August in Bangkok, Thailand, at the request of Colorado and U.S. officials. During questioning, he confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Karr was arrested after Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado, alerted authorities to information he had drawn from e-mails Karr had sent him over the past four years. The question: Do you break a confidence with your source if you think it can solve a murder — or protect children half a world away?

Who’s the “Predator”? “To Catch a Predator,” the ratings-grabbing series on NBC’s Dateline, appeared to catch on with the public. But it also raised serious ethical questions for journalists. The question: If your newspaper or television station were approached by Perverted Justice to participate in a “sting” designed to identify real and potential perverts, should you go along, or say, “No thanks”? Was NBC reporting the news or creating it?

The Media’s Foul Ball The Chicago Cubs in 2003 were five outs from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1945 when a 26-year-old fan tried to grab a foul ball, preventing outfielder Moises Alou from catching it. The hapless fan's identity was unknown. But he became recognizable through televised replays as the young baby-faced man in glasses, a Cubs baseball cap and earphones who bobbled the ball and was blamed for costing the Cubs a trip to the World Series. The question: Given the potential danger to the man, should he be identified by the media?

Publishing Drunk Drivers’ Photos When readers of The Anderson News picked up the Dec. 31, 1997, issue of the newspaper, stripped across the top of the front page was a New Year’s greeting and a warning. “HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR,” the banner read. “But please don’t drink and drive and risk having your picture published.” Readers were referred to the editorial page where White explained that starting in January 1998 the newspaper would publish photographs of all persons convicted of drunken driving in Anderson County. The question: Is this an appropriate policy for a newspaper?

Naming Victims of Sex Crimes On January 8, 2007, 13-year-old Ben Ownby disappeared while walking home from school in Beaufort, Missouri. A tip from a school friend led police on a frantic four-day search that ended unusually happily: the police discovered not only Ben, but another boy as well—15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who, four years earlier, had disappeared while riding his bike at the age of 11. Media scrutiny on Shawn’s years of captivity became intense. The question: Question: Should children who are thought to be the victims of sexual abuse ever be named in the media? What should be done about the continued use of names of kidnap victims who are later found to be sexual assault victims? Should use of their names be discontinued at that point?

A Self-Serving Leak San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams were widely praised for their stories about sports figures involved with steroids. They turned their investigation into a very successful book, Game of Shadows . And they won the admiration of fellow journalists because they were willing to go to prison to protect the source who had leaked testimony to them from the grand jury investigating the BALCO sports-and-steroids. Their source, however, was not quite so noble. The question: Should the two reporters have continued to protect this key source even after he admitted to lying? Should they have promised confidentiality in the first place?

The Times and Jayson Blair Jayson Blair advanced quickly during his tenure at The New York Times , where he was hired as a full-time staff writer after his internship there and others at The Boston Globe and The Washington Post . Even accusations of inaccuracy and a series of corrections to his reports on Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks did not stop Blair from moving on to national coverage of the war in Iraq. But when suspicions arose over his reports on military families, an internal review found that he was fabricating material and communicating with editors from his Brooklyn apartment — or within the Times building — rather than from outside New York. The question: How does the Times investigate problems and correct policies that allowed the Blair scandal to happen?

Cooperating with the Government It began on Jan. 18, 2005, and ended two weeks later after the longest prison standoff in recent U.S. history. The question: Should your media outlet go along with the state’s request not to release the information?

Offensive Images Caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad didn’t cause much of a stir when they were first published in September 2005. But when they were republished in early 2006, after Muslim leaders called attention to the 12 images, it set off rioting throughout the Islamic world. Embassies were burned; people were killed. After the rioting and killing started, it was difficult to ignore the cartoons. Question: Do we publish the cartoons or not?

The Sting Perverted-Justice.com is a Web site that can be very convenient for a reporter looking for a good story. But the tactic raises some ethical questions. The Web site scans Internet chat rooms looking for men who can be lured into sexually explicit conversations with invented underage correspondents. Perverted-Justice posts the men’s pictures on its Web site. Is it ethically defensible to employ such a sting tactic? Should you buy into the agenda of an advocacy group — even if it’s an agenda as worthy as this one?

A Media-Savvy Killer Since his first murder in 1974, the “BTK” killer — his own acronym, for “bind, torture, kill” — has sent the Wichita Eagle four letters and one poem. How should a newspaper, or other media outlet, handle communications from someone who says he’s guilty of multiple sensational crimes? And how much should it cooperate with law enforcement authorities?

A Congressman’s Past The (Portland) Oregonian learned that a Democratic member of the U.S. Congress, up for re-election to his fourth term, had been accused by an ex-girlfriend of a sexual assault some 28 years previously. But criminal charges never were filed, and neither the congressman, David Wu, nor his accuser wanted to discuss the case now, only weeks before the 2004 election. Question: Should The Oregonian publish this story?

Using this Process to Craft a Policy It used to be that a reporter would absolutely NEVER let a source check out a story before it appeared. But there has been growing acceptance of the idea that it’s more important to be accurate than to be independent. Do we let sources see what we’re planning to write? And if we do, when?

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Home > Books > The Evolution of Media Communication

Online Journalism: Current Trends and Challenges

Submitted: 02 October 2016 Reviewed: 23 February 2017 Published: 31 May 2017

DOI: 10.5772/68086

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In the past 25 years, the journalistic sphere has gone through radical changes and transformations, progressively adapting to the contemporary global trends in news‐making. Traditional understanding of journalism as a profession has changed significantly, mostly due to the fact that digital media environment has brought new opportunities but also challenges related to the journalistic practice. The text aims to offer a theoretical reflection on the issue of online journalism. At the same time, the chapter discusses specific forms of Internet‐delivered journalistic production and professional requirements placed on journalists who specialise in online news‐making, taking into consideration the current development tendencies of digital communication forms. The authors work with a basic assumption that many aspects related to form and content of online news need to be discussed in the light of much needed terminological and paradigmatic revisions related to both the general theory of journalism and our practical understanding of journalism as a continual, creative and highly professional, publicly performed activity.

• innovation in journalism
• mobile applications
• mobile journalism
• news websites
• online journalism
• social media

Author Information

Ján višňovský *.

• Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Trnava, Slovak Republic

Jana Radošinská

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

It is generally accepted that the ‘traditional’ press and online journalism have coexisted for more than two decades. This time period has been marked by publishers’ scepticism towards the digital media and pessimist visions of the newspapers’ future significantly. The predictions by many media professionals claiming that ‘the digital turn’ would result in decreasing readership of the press, or even in ‘total extinction’ of the print newspapers, have appeared repeatedly. It is therefore no surprise that publishers have been forced to take various steps leading to preservation of their then‐existing readership bases. However, the current situation does not suggest that the state of matters will change radically in the near future. On the contrary, it is rather reasonable to expect (at least in terms of Slovak media market and Central European region) further decrease in sales of daily newspapers. Paradoxically, some print newspapers and magazines published in the United States and in the countries of Asia and North Africa are—slowly but steadily—increasing their circulation. Despite this development online news portals will most probably strengthen their contemporary market position of highly profitable information sources. Development of journalism in the sphere of social media and digital applications will, undoubtedly, expand further as well.

In the recent years, online journalism has entered and occupied places where Internet users spend a lot of their free time, e.g. social networks. Online media have also made their mark within development of various dimensions of alternative news dissemination and so‐called citizen journalism [ 1 ]. Reacting to the current situation in the field of professional news production and distribution, Gant notes that the century which preceded the emergence of the Internet—a period dominated by large news organisations, increasingly controlled by profit‐oriented corporations—appears to have supported an artificial distinction between journalists and everyone else: ‘In a sense, we are returning to where we started. The institutional press no longer possesses the exclusive means of reaching the public. Anyone can disseminate information to the rest of the world’ [ 2 ]. The emergence of specialised production practices and new tools for disseminating journalistic information indicates that the publishing houses’ and editorial offices’ primal distrust of the Internet, so typical for the second half of the 1990s, has slowly vanished, mostly due to the quick technological improvements and possibilities offered by the online environment. The Internet has become a good partner but also a strong competitor of the ‘traditional’ media. It is currently securing its position of an extremely popular communication means bound to young and middle‐aged generations of media audiences. It also functions as a particularly important tool for improving education, as a space for conducting a wide spectrum of work, business and marketing activities. The traditional media are very well aware that they cannot ignore these aspects. Reacting to the trends in digital communication, the conventional ways of producing journalistic content are trying to use the Internet’s many advantages for their own benefit.

Ongoing transformations of the journalistic profession are obvious also in the case of emerging digital actors who identify themselves as journalists even though they often lack the ‘standard’ professional training and institutional background completely. Eldridge sees this new kind of news producers as those who, through pursuing journalistic work, ‘have irritated and blurred the traditional boundaries of the journalistic field’. However, it has to be acknowledged that this type of digital journalists may, despite their occasionally controversial public image, directly or indirectly cooperate with the mainstream media (e.g. renowned daily newspapers may use and thoroughly investigate materials published by WikiLeaks ) [ 3 ]. According to Gant, they often work ‘at the leading edge of innovative journalism’ and take full advantage of ‘an expanse of digital approaches to share news and information online’ ([ 2 ], p. 34). Knight and Cook also point out that the individual journalist has become much more visible and the traditional media landscape is fragmented, and that is why the voice of the individual becomes clearer in a social media landscape. Journalists—those working inside media organisations as well as those operating ‘outside’ the mainstream media industry—are able to establish direct contact with audiences, and they also have more options as to where to search for (and publish) their news stories [ 4 ].

Even though there is no generally accepted consensus that would explain how exactly the Internet has changed the ways we produce, disseminate and access news, scholars focusing on journalism and professional journalists agree that we are witnessing many shifts in the field of professional production of news and information. The speed of these ongoing transformation processes is, however, the reason why journalistic practices, along with the theory of journalism, are hardly able to cope with them. Regardless of whether the newspapers are available in ‘traditional’ or online forms, the factor deciding on efficiency of their public impact and acceptance is bound to attracting and holding the recipients’ attention [ 5 ]. On the other hand, the attention media audiences pay to specific content projects itself into economic imperatives related to the press and thus create a secondary media market (advertising market). According to Mendelová, the media market may be perceived as a business sector consisting of two different fields—a consumer segment (where products are offered to customers) and an advertising market (where advertisers buy advertising space in order to publicly present their goods) [ 6 ].

The situation print journalism finds itself in is a result of several factors and circumstances. As we have mentioned above, the recipients are able to access increasing amounts of information. Moreover, the Internet, television and even radio spread news much faster than the traditional press. Using new information technologies (such as smart phones, tablets or ‘intelligent’, i.e. Internet‐connected televisions) has become a common part of the everyday reality, especially for young and middle‐aged people. Decreasing circulation of the press proves that, generally speaking, people read the newspapers much less than in the past. However, they spend more time working and playing with the computers. Another fact worth mentioning is that the need for information related to reading newspapers has changed significantly as well (for further information, see Ref. [ 5 ]). Few recipients actually pay attention to political or economic life of the society; the readers are interested in tabloid journalism instead, preferring entertainment over information values. Roubal discusses the ‘society of experience’ and states that ‘a world of unlimited opportunities is a world that also provides unlimited resources in terms of experiences and entertainment’ [ 7 ].

During the last decade, the Internet has become widely available in terms of both access and prices. While in 2007 only 55% of households in the European Union were equipped by Internet connection, 81% of EU households could access the Internet in 2014. Widespread and financially available broadband Internet connection (the most common form of accessing the Internet in EU, in 2014 used by 78% of households) has become one of the pillars of the information society or rather the knowledge society. The highest proportion (96%) of households with Internet access was recorded in Luxemburg and the Netherlands; nine out of ten households could access the Internet also in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The lowest proportion of households with Internet access among EU member states, 57%, was in Bulgaria [ 8 ].

The topics we aim to discuss in the following parts of the chapter refer to contemporary trends in online journalism, its products and practices. Russell notes that these practices ‘give new relevance to long‐standing questions at the heart of what used to be called journalistic profession: How is truth defined and by whom? Which forms of practices of journalism yield the most credible product? How do consumers measure value among, on the one hand, elite media institutions, with their gatekeepers, resources, and professional codes and training, and, on the other, the bloggers and wiki‐ists and emailers, with their editorial independence, collaborative structures, and merit‐based popularity?’ [ 9 ]. The problems Russell positions as crucial only confirm that the current questions of journalism and online journalism are hard to address and answer thoroughly. Nevertheless, we offer our view on the issues by taking into account the most recent developments in the given field of media production.

2. The sphere of online journalism and its development

The term ‘online journalism’ means publishing journalistic content and news stories—in all their sorts—on the Internet. Oxford Dictionary of Journalism by Harcup specifies that ‘online journalism’ includes various kinds of news that are disseminated via websites, social media, RSS channels, e‐mails, newsletters and other forms of online communication. Online journalism, being in sharp contrast with the more traditional ways of journalistic information dissemination related to the press, allows the producers to present news in a non‐linear way; the recipients are able to choose when and how they want to receive the news [ 10 ]. Russell favours the term ‘networked journalism’ and observes that it is ‘about more than journalists using a digitally equipped public as a kind of new hyper‐source. It is also about a shift in the balance of power between news providers and news consumers. Digital publishing tools and powerful mobile devices are matched by cultural developments such as increased scepticism towards traditional sources of journalistic authority’ ([ 9 ], p. 2).

The electronic or rather digital form of publishing and offering journalistic products through the Internet thus can be seen as a basic attribute which allows us to distinguish between ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ journalism. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the creative principles of journalism, which result in specific activities of processing and shaping information in order to create journalistic products, are—very much like in the case of ‘traditional’ journalism—associated with employment of strictly determined procedures (for more information, see Ref. [ 5 ]). The overall framework of creative activities related to products of online journalism as well as its final forms is, however, different from the ‘traditional’ outcomes of journalistic work, often to a great extent.

Closely associated with dynamic commercial expansion of the Internet, the very beginnings of online journalism can be dated back to the first half of the 1990s. The most essential steps towards emergence of a new and highly important communication form were taken by the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) in 1991. Following this development, the US Congress pushed a legal act declaring the free worldwide use of this emerging network. With regard to Central Europe, Slovak Republic’s strategic geographic location helped spread the Internet in the Central European region. The Slovak elite daily newspaper SME started to publish journalistic contents on the Web introduced by the Slovak Academy of Sciences (via project ‘Logos’) in 1994. Its own domain www.sme.sk was established in 1996, functioning as a pioneer and ground‐breaking venture—the newspaper ‘entered’ the online environment among the first ones in Central Europe. The daily’s editorial office later partnered with Slovak magazine CD Tip , and together they offered CD‐ROMs providing monthly archives of digital data and texts published online. In 1999, the page was transformed into a fully functioning news portal with daily updates. SME ’s expanded online activity was quickly followed by similar measures taken by its closest competitors, dailies Pravda and Hospodárske noviny.

The most visible aspects of this form of journalism include websites of the ‘traditional’ media (e.g. www.nytimes.com, www.sme.sk, www.rtvs.sk) but also media existing exclusively on the Internet (often called ‘e‐zines’). Online journalism uses various multimedia and interactive elements containing texts, photographs, videos, hyperlinks and users’ comments that are often simultaneously published on social networks in order to be exposed to for larger groups of target audiences. Czech publicist and sociologist Bednář determines the following features of Internet journalism: real‐time access, interactivity, instant comparison with competition, interconnection of information through hypertext and blending formats [ 11 ].

It is quite obvious that each new medium has, at least to a certain extent, adopted and modified previously existing genres in order to expand its own possibilities of processing and disseminating information. Understandably, genres of online journalism are based on genre typology used in the press. On the other hand, the presence of audio‐visual content and other graphic, multimedia and interactive aspects on the Internet functions as a framework for creation and establishment of specific genres which are typical for the online environment (e.g. online interview, online discussion or online reportage). Considering the changes in genres of journalism in relation to the Internet and its quick emergence, Osvaldová states that the freedom of publishing on the Web is one of the basic attributes of this medium. However, preservation of the essential rules of ‘journalistic writing’ seems to be beneficial, at least for now—for the authors and the recipients alike [ 12 ]. The Internet’s influence on journalistic content, its types and its formats is much smaller than its ability to provide yet unseen types of information access. However, the current practice suggests that online contents published in textual, audible or audio‐visual forms are similarly presented in the ‘traditional’ media as well. Online journalism is no exception to this general rule—many journalistic texts published on the Internet are also available and, in the exact same form, in the press.

Online publishing’s influence on content is a significant factor of Internet journalists’ work and thus determines activities of the online news media as such. Besides taking into account its own topics and formal specifics, online journalism also complies with economic imperatives, as it is possible to rather precisely define the target audiences and thus present advertisements quite effectively. Another economic strength of the online journalism is related to minimising costs of printing and distribution. However, as noted by van der Wurff, costs associated with creation of any new product (a newspaper, a magazine, a television show, etc.) are still considerably high [ 13 ]. Production of a new piece designed to be published on the Internet is as expensive as if it was to be published in the press.

Once again it is necessary to stress out that the Internet has brought a significant breakthrough in terms of accessing information. It would be hardly deniable that the users are now able to choose from a plethora of information from all spheres of social life, including public institutions, state authorities and government, business entities, etc. As of the news media, their key objective is to select events of the social reality and process them into the form of media contents, to give them certain added value. The journalistic practice has shown clearly that media has been rather reluctant to take into account the ongoing transformation processes of the online environment. One of the reasons causing this quite low primal trust towards the Internet is the fact that media organisations have had a lot of trouble finding optimal business models able to provide additional profit from Internet content (advertising revenues, premium services, etc.). Paradoxically, unspecified prejudices of the ‘traditional’ media towards the Internet have played their part as well.

Considering the influence of the Internet on the press, i.e. on those media that process information and publish news in textual forms predominantly, it is, on the one hand, visible in the sphere of reception activities related to accessing information; on the other hand, the Web also significantly determines the ways today’s journalists and editorial staffs do their work. Media convergence and economic issues of the press, mostly those associated with circulation and advertising revenues, lead to ‘rationalisation’ of specific creative activities. Such ‘rationalisation’ inevitably leads to reduction of costs in the area of human resources and therefore to merging various (previously clearly distinguishable) professions involved in the editorial activities. Allan summarises the issue very thoroughly: ‘While managers talk of “reorganisation,” “downsizing,” “layoffs,” “cutbacks,” “concessions” and the like (while striving to avoid the word “bankruptcy”), news and editorial posts are being “concentrated,” with remaining staffs members compelled to “multi‐task” as they adopt greater “flexibility” with regard to their salary and working conditions. “Converged” content is being “repacked,” a polite way of saying that its quantity—and, too often, quality—is shrinking as “efficiencies” are imposed’ [ 14 ].

Traditional and time‐tested routines in the journalistic practice are thus, under the influence of ‘multimedialisation’, becoming weaker, which leads to blurring the boundaries between two once strictly separate platforms—the editorial office of a newspaper and the editorial office of an online news portal. After all, the notable changes are visible in terms of the journalistic profession itself; nowadays it is not enough to be a highly skilled writer; one must also be able to effectively work with the Internet, ‘smart’ devices, video cameras, editing software, etc. Moreover, it is necessary to admit that the academic discourse is just at the beginning of conceptualisation of journalism in the new contexts related to digital technology and its use. Heinrich offers a thorough reflection on the issue: ‘A multi‐platform structure of journalism is evolving in which boundaries between the traditional media outlets of print, radio and television are blurring. Print, audio and video are increasingly merging online as the lines between formerly distinct media platforms are becoming indistinct. Network technologies have triggered processes of convergence impacting the management of cross‐platform news flow processes in day‐to‐day news production. Journalistic outlets in Western societies are affected by these developments and acquire new notions of journalistic practice as well as reconfigured perception of our journalistic cultures’ [ 15 ]. Similarly, Czech journalist Čuřík discusses this matter in terms of profession of ‘a multimedia journalist’ and other changes in the traditional journalistic routines. Maybe the most significant positive features of the Internet in relation to the press are inevitable creation of new ways of distributing content to the readers, new forms of this content’s processing and the use of hypertext [ 16 ].

Compared to media such as radio or television, the press is far less demanding in terms of the use of digital technologies; the Web was, after all, primarily created in order to record and transfer textual information. Moreover, computers are not the only devices providing Internet access. The Internet is also available via television screens, tablets and mobile phones. The most significant positive attributes of the Internet in the context of its ‘relationship’ with the press are the possibility of updating information in real‐time and standard publication of audio‐visual materials but also providing access to digital archives and interactivity (the readers’ reactions may be received through e‐mails or in the form of discussion contributions placed below the published materials).

3. News available everywhere: emerging trends in mobile journalism

‘Mobile journalism’ is a specific type of journalistic production where news in various forms (text, audio‐visual recording and the like) are disseminated through the Internet and displayed on screens of portable devices, mostly mobile phones and tablets. Increasing importance of mobile journalism is associated with development of the mobile Web and innovative products offered by global telecommunication operators. According to Westlund, publishing news through mobile phones involves various ways of distributing journalistic content—from alerts sent through SMS and MMS, through web portals of the news media, to specialised mobile applications [ 17 ].

The emergence of mobile journalism is related to development and the wide public use of the mobile Internet and wireless network connection, respectively. Data by Eurostat show that in 2012, 36% of EU residents aged 16–74 were able to access the mobile Internet, while 2 years later, it was already 51%. The most frequently used Internet‐connected portable communication devices include mobile phones or rather smart phones, laptops of all sizes and tablets. In 2014, the mobile Web was most used in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark) and in the United Kingdom—by approximately 75% of residents aged 16–74. In contrast, in the Balkan countries (Bulgaria, Romania) and Italy, only 28% of residents were able to access the Internet outside their homes or workplaces in 2014 [ 8 ].

Reacting to the new trends in mobile publishing, Murár states that there are significant differences between designing a ‘traditional’ and a mobile Web—these result from technological specifications of mobile devices and take into account the ways of using portable means of communication. The decisive criterion here is simplicity, in terms of data visualisation, navigation and the content itself. The visual processing of the mobile Web is predominantly determined by displays of portable devices which are significantly smaller than desktop monitors and laptop screens of the standard size of 15.4 inches. The mobile Web also demands special forms of navigation as the readers are not able to use computer hardware such as mice. Another notable change brought by the mobile Web is the utter end of ‘paper folding’ that is so typical for the daily press [ 18 ]. We are nowadays unable to unambiguously identify the ‘priority’ Web content, since it is impossible to predict whether the users will read the news via desktops, notebooks, mobile phones or tablets. Moreover, it is also hard to estimate what type of document orientation (‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’) a specific user of a mobile device prefers.

The most typical feature of the mobile Web is the possibility of using mobile applications. These are specific parts of software designed to comply with operation and the use of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. A mobile application is typically downloaded and installed by a device’s user. Mobile applications of newspapers and news portals are, in terms of typology, called ‘mobile Web apps’. Their content is—in sharp contrast with the traditional press—multimedia and often also interactive; besides, the readers may filter the news in accordance with their own preferences. Access to the newest information is therefore instant and continual.

We point out in our previous work [ 5 ] that general trends in mobile publishing (and the very existence of digital applications designed to browse and read online newspapers via smart phones, tablets and similar devices) are linked to two basic issues that must be addressed by the content providers (media producers):

The first issue is associated with selection of textual and audio‐visual information. These pieces of news are meant to be published online, and thus their effective organisation in the communication space is required; in other words, they have to be positioned appropriately on the displays used by the readers (e.g. computer screens, displays of smart phones or tablets). This ‘information design’ is basically a set of functional editing possibilities that reshape and process information used to create compact journalistic products.

The second issue is to create special kinds of applications that will correspond with the technical features and limitations of communication devices used to mediate the journalistic content. Focusing on interactivity and comfort of the readers (users) should be one of the publishers’ priorities. In this case, we take into account mainly technological design of communication devices; it is necessary to make sure they are available to a wide spectrum of users, even to those coping with various kinds of impairment [ 5 ].

In accordance with the two categories stated above, we define the ‘information design’ as a general approach to content arrangement and presentation of information; its aim is to always communicate particular ideas and information clearly and effectively. Originally developed to improve the usefulness and visual attractiveness of print books and manuals, it is now just as likely to be found in the processes of production of online news published on websites [ 19 ]. The main objective of the information design—effective communication—is achieved through focusing on the information’s recipient thoroughly. The given arguments suggest that information design is mostly bound to the communication content that can be processed by using questions starting with ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. ‘Designing information’ is a process of effective presentation of visual, audio or audio‐visual components in compact, integrated ways. This process minds the clear differences between using graphic elements to arrange the texts and choosing appropriate visual components (e.g. photographs) that complete the textual information (for more information, see Refs. [ 5 , 20 ]).

It is obvious that the use of mobile phones has influenced the editorial practice and journalistic work significantly. In relation to this matter, Harcup observes that a mobile phone is a journalist’s work tool of high importance, just as a pen and later a portable computer used to be important in the case of previous generations of journalists. The journalistic practice employs mobile phones in relation to many everyday activities, mostly to search for information sources, record interviews and videos, create photographs as well as edit and send them. Of course, the effective use of mobile devices in the journalistic production requires new media competences: mainly the ability to seek and verify information online; editing skills associated with processing photographs, recorded sounds and videos; knowledge of online social networks and their functions and, last but not least, experience with web copywriting ([ 10 ], p. 180). However, these trends are influencing not only journalistic production but also distribution and reception of news content as well. As shown by the last year’s issue of European Communication Monitor, the most comprehensive research in the field worldwide, several significant changes in contemporary communication activities related to mobile devices are occurring. The research results are based on responses by 2710 communication professionals from 43 different European countries. Apart from other essential topics associated with public information dissemination, the research report also presents a set of information and data on ‘perceived importance for addressing stakeholders, gatekeepers and audiences today and in 3 years’, i.e. a comparison of the current importance of modes of audience address and its perspectives or rather changes in the near future [ 21 ]. Even though face‐to‐face communication is currently identified as the most important with 77.6% and its importance will slightly increase to 77.9% in 2019, there are other categories to consider as progressively influential. These include online communication via websites, e‐mail, intranets (now 76.9 and 82.9% in 2019), social media and social networks (76.2% in 2016, 88.9% in 3 years). However, the most significant shift in the importance of communication channels and instruments is related to category of mobile communication (phone/tablet apps, mobile websites)—from today’s slightly above‐average value 63.7% to the leading value of 91.2% in 2019. It is also necessary to consider the fact that the category ‘press and media relations with print newspapers/magazines’ is quickly losing its traditionally prominent position in the sphere of public communication (from 64.1% in 2016 to much lower value of 30.2% in 2019) ([ 21 ], p. 61). Such predictions state clearly that media professionals and organisations aiming to engage in public communication need to reconsider their current production practices and the ways they address their target audiences. It seems that some of the previously most important modes of audience address may become less effective or even unsuitable for dissemination of certain types of journalistic products towards certain segments of media audiences.

The trends of increasing amount of mobile phone users and the portable devices’ general popularity have led newsrooms and editorial staffs towards developing their own mobile applications. The emergence and widespread use of ‘intelligent’ mobile phones have also influenced the current forms of ‘citizen journalism’. As the mobile devices are equipped by modern operating systems (e.g. Windows, Android, iOS), recording technologies and Internet‐connected applications, their users are capable of creating photographs and audio‐visual contents of high quality that may be later used by media professionals smoothly and easily. People witnessing various kinds of events regularly send photographs and videos straight to newsrooms and news agencies, facilitating much quicker information dissemination. The reports by ‘eye witnesses’ thus may provide almost complete news material, which helps the journalists to make the news cheaper.

The initial emergence of content created by amateur, Internet‐based journalists (i.e. user‐generated content) is occasionally associated with the events of 9/11 in New York, USA, but more often in the context of publishing information about 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and devastating series of tsunami that resulted in killing 230,000–280,000 people across 14 coastal countries. The British elite newspaper The Guardian first acknowledged the meaning of mobile communication as a way of obtaining information in 2002, by starting its service Mobile Alerts designed to inform interested readers via short text messages (SMS) related to breaking news from politics or sports. In November 2005, website of the elite British newspaper Daily Telegraph started to offer a project involving audio recordings of the most important daily events (prepared and read by professional journalists), becoming the first news portal to do so in the United Kingdom. The content was provided for free and its length was between 25 and 30 min. The data could be downloaded and listened to via computers, iPods or MP3 players. To expand its mobile and online services, a year later (in 2006), the renowned British news portal associated with the daily newspaper The Guardian decided to develop a project of publishing analyses and commentaries related to recent news and events on their website. The aim was to offer the readers as wide spectrums of opinions as possible. More than 100 commentators and experts from all fields of social life were involved. Moreover, www.theguardian.com started to offer a service named GuardianWitness in April 2013, providing its users with a space for publishing their own audio‐visual content related to eye‐witnessing experience. Another example of publishing user‐generated media content is the platform YouTube Direct operated by the streaming giant www.youtube.com . This service allows professional editorial offices to browse, obtain and—after receiving owners’ agreements—also publish user‐generated videos and other audio‐visual materials. The users are no more perceived as ordinary recipients; many of them are turning into reporters or photographers instead.

Slovak media have explored possibilities of mobile journalism and user‐generated content thoroughly as well. A mobile application of the Slovak daily SME started to function in 2011. Other popular elements of mobile journalism are the citizen journalism platforms Som reportér [I Am a Reporter] developed by the nationwide commercial television channel TV Markíza and Tip od vás [ A Tip from You ] operated by the most read Slovak tabloid, the daily newspaper Nový čas . However, while news applications for mobile phones and tablets are not so special and innovative anymore, other publishing segments (e.g. academic and scholarly publishing) seem to implement such innovations quite rarely. However, the renowned academic journal from the field of media studies titled Communication Today seems to be an exception, the journal published by the University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, more specifically by the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, is the first Central European academic periodical that publishes its issues also via mobile applications for iOS and Android. The journal’s editor‐in‐chief Martin Solík explains: ‘We are the first scientific journal in Slovakia or Czech Republic to publish digitally, via ‘tablets’ as such. The first day of being available on the App Store brought exactly 30 downloads. Our expectations had been, in fact, quite modest, as we were aware that as an academic journal, we attracted a much narrower target group than any lifestyle magazine’ [ 22 ]. The application is nowadays used by more than 1500 unique readers and remains the only one of its kind, at least in terms of Central European scientific periodicals.

4. Social media as news sources

Development of online social networks was marked by technological advancements and employment of Web 2.0 in 2004. This new dynamic type of providing Web content allowed the users to create their own products and thus became very attractive also in relation to business activities. At present, a wide spectrum of social networks is available. These media ‘unite’ their users on basis of different communication platforms. As a general rule, we may talk about ‘universal’ social networks without any specific thematic (content) orientation that provide communication among individual users: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram or Slovak Pokec [ Small Talk ] may be categorised here. However, there are also various specialised social media that integrate users in accordance with their common interests and hobbies. For example, LinkedIn offers communication activities related to professional growth, human resources and doing business.

According to Velšic’s research report, in 2012 the Slovak Institute for Public Affairs conducted a research regarding the use of social networks, related communication activities and levels of digital literacy their users reach. The research sample consisted of 1135 respondents. The highest percentage of social network users was in the group of people aged 14–24 (more than 90% of the surveyed respondents). For comparison, only 45% of respondents aged 45–54 and not more than 8% of seniors used online social media. Of course, geographic and socio‐economic differences between Slovak regions played a certain role there—a lot more users of social networks lived in cities and towns than in villages and rural areas. In terms of economic activity, Slovak social media users were predominantly students (90%) but also employed people (75%), businessmen and women on maternity leave [ 23 ]. A more up‐to‐date statistics claims that in October 2014, Facebook was used by 2.2 million Slovaks, of which 1.16 million were women; moreover, 2/3 of all users were younger than 35 years old. Social media such as Facebook and Instagram were identified as a very essential part of younger generations’ social life and cultural activities (almost 100% of young people used their own social media accounts) [ 24 ].

Research data originating in other EU countries clearly show that the situation there is similar to Slovakia. Spending time on social networks is one of the most frequent online activities. According to Eurostat, 46% of EU residents aged 16–74 use the Internet in order to visit social networks, mostly Facebook or Twitter. Social networks are used by at least six out of ten people in Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Luxemburg, the United Kingdom, Island and Norway; data from the Netherlands suggest that in this country, social networks are also used widely (by 59% of Dutch respondents) [ 8 ].

Trying to understand the ways Internet users search for news and information while on social networks, Hermida states that audience behaviour varies from platform to platform, particularly between the two more important networks for news— Facebook and Twitter . On Facebook , he explains, news exposure and consumption are more of a by‐product of spending time on the service. The incidental news exposure on Facebook contrasts with more purposeful news‐seeking on Twitter . Instagram, Tumblr and Snapchat tend to attract younger users than Facebook or Twitter, although Facebook , YouTube and Twitter are the most important online sources for news overall [ 25 ]. Newman, Fletcher, Levy and Nielsen interpret results of the recent study commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism that aims to better understand how the news is being consumed in a range of countries (26 countries all over the world):

Across the entire sample, more than half of respondents (51%) say they use social media as a source of news each week. Around one in ten (12%) says it is their main source. Facebook is by far the most important network for finding, reading, watching and sharing news.

Social media are significantly more important for women (who are also less likely to go directly to a news website or app) and for the young people. More than a quarter of people aged 18–24 (28%) say social media are their main source of news—more than television (24%) for the first time.

Although publishers and technology platforms are pushing online news video hard for commercial reasons, the research data provide evidence that most consumers are still resistant. More than 3/4 of the respondents (78%) say they still mostly rely on text. When pressed, the main reasons people give for not using more video are that they find reading news quicker and more convenient (41%) and the annoyance of pre‐roll advertisements (35%) [ 26 ].

Besides offering personal profiles of individual users, social networks also include accounts operated by commercial subjects and public institutions, firms and associations, e.g. universities. Even in the sector of education, it is crucial to employ appropriate forms of marketing communication in order to ‘stay in touch’ with the target audiences (see, e.g. Ref. [ 27 ]). Naturally, the ‘traditional’ media outlets—the press, radio stations or television channels—are no exceptions, either. The daily newspaper SME established its official account on Facebook in 2008 to provide hypertext references to the most interesting topics published on www.sme.sk and in the press version. As the communication via social media is highly interactive, the users are able to evaluate shared contributions through ‘likes’ and disseminate them further by ‘sharing’ and thus adding the content to their personal profiles. SME ’s account on Facebook is watched by almost 110,000 users [ 28 ]. For comparison, the account of the daily newspaper Pravda is ‘liked’ by approximately 44,000 users [ 29 ].

The fact that social media may be defined as tools for interaction between journalists and recipients was also confirmed by research findings. Murár claims that research data gathered from 20 professional journalists show an interesting shift in the preferred forms of feedback. The ‘traditional’ forms of feedback (e.g. letters, phone calls) have been replaced by SMS, e‐mails and reactions received through Facebook or Twitter. The social media also positively influence the overall quality of the published content as it is closely watched by the public and media producers are very well aware of that. The tendency mostly leads towards further development of journalistic reporting style and thus aims to better meet the readers’ expectations and preferences, e.g. by creation of attractive headlines, shorter sentences, interesting subheads, etc. [ 30 ]. However, it is still very important to offer added value of the published news in relation to the reader—this added value decides whether a specific contribution will be discussed further or not. After all, The Guardian ’s digital chief Aron Pilhofer says: ‘I feel very strongly that digital journalism needs to be a conversation with readers. This is one, if not the most important area of emphasis that traditional newsrooms are actually ignoring. You see site after site killing comments and moving away from community—that’s a monumental mistake. Any site that moves away from comments is a plus for sites like ours. Readers need and deserve a voice. They should be a core part of your journalism’ [ 31 ].

The virtual environment created by online social media is also special because of the ways it encourages people to ‘join in’, to participate in various activities bound to the social network. Albinsson and Perera see this issue from the perspective of consumer activism: ‘The virtual world has undeniably revolutionised consumer activism. Not only is there a vast amount of information at the tip of one’s fingers, there is also the capacity to send out mass e‐mails, share videos and sign petitions with the click of a button. Thus, with the advent of template e‐mails and the ‘share’ or ‘forward’ buttons, consumer action has become much less costly in terms of resources, including time, money, and thought’ [ 32 ]. These facts must be acknowledged by companies selling their products through social networks but also by those who financially rely on additional dissemination of their contents thanks to massive ‘sharing’. Follrichová observes that online advertisers, knowing what pages are visited by their target audiences most often and thus able to obtain geographical ‘coordinates’ of their customers, may address the customers in more individualised and accurate ways. However, this kind of information is often gathered not by the content producers but rather by commercial IT companies [ 33 ].

Newman discusses the emerging trends in news dissemination through social networks by mentioning various new features and elements employed by the world’s most successful social networks. In 2015, the author mentions, Snapchat Discover led the charge in January by inviting publishers to create ‘native’ and mobile experiences on their platform. Facebook was quick to follow with Instant Articles designed to create a faster experience and promised publishers greater reach along with up to 100% of advertising revenues. Furthermore, the relaunched Apple News also required media companies to publish content directly into their platform. However, Twitter Moments is mostly about creating native experiences but interestingly involves reverse publishing that content within news sites to attract more people to Twitter [ 34 ]. As Newman remarks, for publishers, these moves raise huge dilemmas—if more consumption moves to platforms like Facebook , Twitter or Snapchat , it will be ‘harder to build direct relationships with users and monetise content’ ([ 34 ], p. 4). But, on the other hand, if they do nothing, it will be almost impossible to engage mainstream audiences who are spending more time with these platforms.

These new ventures are only a few examples of how the social networks compete to attract other media producers, advertisers and, most importantly, media audiences deciding whether to look for news and opinions related to the current affairs predominantly on Facebook, Twitter , Snapchat or other popular social networks. It is beyond any doubts that the online media and Internet‐connected communication forms are transforming the traditional patterns of journalistic production bound to the press and information offered by radio or television. The evolution of media and technologies they use is taking a huge part in the emergence of new forms of arranging and disseminating the media content. Considering today’s communication tendencies, it is no surprise that many users of the online social networks are able to ‘keep up’ with the latest information regarding domestic and foreign affairs without buying one issue of a newspaper or visiting a single online news portal.

5. On innovation in journalism

Innovation is nowadays perceived as one of the most crucial tools for social and economic development of the society. Implementation of specific innovations is anchored in many strategic documents, national and international alike (see, e.g. Ref. [ 35 ]). Innovations in terms of journalism are related, on the one hand, to the use of the Internet in the processes of creating, distributing and searching for the journalistic content; on the other hand, innovation activities also involve organisational measures associated with journalistic work, management of human resources and new business models implemented by publishing houses and editors. Heinrich points out that these innovations ‘not only alter journalistic practice as such, but challenge journalism to incorporate cross‐platform networks in various stages of the process of news production’ ([ 15 ], p. 2). A multiplatform structure of journalism is evolving. Pavlik reminds that journalism and the media as such are surrounded by many changes and shifts in media logic determined by technological advancements and economic uncertainty on a global scale. Innovation, according to the author, is the key factor influencing ‘vitality’ of the media, and it builds upon four basic principles:

Research and development

Freedom of expression

Objective and impartial news‐making

Complying with ethical codes and normative frameworks [ 36 ]

As of innovations in terms of journalism, it seems that the shifts are manifesting themselves predominantly within the sector of online journalism, especially mobile applications (e.g. the use of interactive design elements and the responsive Web, thanks to which the content easily adjusts itself to the device that is used to access information). Online news portals are following these trends as well, for instance, by adapting their structure and composition to the technological means of communication in order to wholly use their advantages and make the content easier to access. Arrangement of texts in the online issues is very different in comparison with the traditional press but also with ‘newspapers’ designed to mobile phones and tablets. Nielsen’s long‐term research on the issues related to reading web pages claims that the processes of reception on the Internet significantly differ from those bound to reading the press. The results of the author’s ‘eye‐tracking’ study involving 232 individual users suggest that an ‘F‐shaped’ strategy is employed here:

Users start to ‘scan’ the page through horizontal eye movements, generally at the top.

They focus on the middle part of the content.

At last they move their eyes vertically, top to bottom.

According to Nielsen, the users of the Web tend to ‘scan’ information (79%) instead of reading them (16%), focusing on the first and last letters in the individual words [ 37 ].

Implementation of strategic innovation in journalism has encountered serious problems as well, since business activities bound to journalism often aim to achieve rather short‐term objectives. Even today’s print newspapers (and the print media in general) place emphasis on meeting deadlines (these are based on predetermined production cycles) and fulfilling strategic plans related to advertising sales. It means that many innovation activities are only short‐lived. On the other hand, some innovative production procedures have resulted in many shifts and changes in editorial practices. These include optimisation of work, new publication strategies associated with the Internet and mobile devices (‘mobile first’), content creation that corresponds with demands of the used media or employment of Snapchat in terms of journalistic work. As Eldridge summarises, it does not matter whether we are discussing journalistic bloggers on ‘J‐blogs’, journalists’ use of social media, interactive live blogs or the work of more activist‐oriented interloper media such as WikiLeaks ; the work of new digital journalists is increasingly commonplace and very visible ([ 3 ], p. 45).

Quandt and Singer suggest that ‘journalism in the future is both distinct from other forms of digital content and integrated with those forms to a far greater extent than in either the past or the present’. The authors also remind that the mainstream news organisations ‘still wield enormous power through both the collective capabilities of their staffs and their own economic heft within their communities—professional and commercial power that individuals simply do not possess and, as individuals, will not possess in the foreseeable future’ [ 38 ].

6. Conclusion

Focusing on journalism and its place in the globalised society of the twenty‐first century, we have to conclude that the processes of making news and publishing opinions on public affairs are transforming radically. McNair notes that the dominant model of journalism of the twentieth century, which used to be embodied by the professional journalists producing objective and reliable information, is currently fragmented due to the influence of new media and technologies [ 39 ]. Despite many pessimistic visions proposed by other authors, McNair does not worry about the future of journalism itself: ‘Journalism will not die out in this environment, because it is so needed on so many social, political and cultural levels. Journalism has a future. It will evolve, as it has evolved already, from the antique styles of the early newsbooks to the gloss and sheen of the modern prime time news bulletin… But how will it change and will the change be for the better, or for the worse?’ ([ 39 ], p. 21). However, other forms of journalism, e.g. those related to the so‐called citizen journalism, have changed as well. It seems that almost anyone who is able to access the Internet is also free to publish and share their opinions and may thus provide a certain (critical) alternative to the dominant mainstream media. Many Internet users belonging to younger and middle‐aged generations have adopted the products of citizen journalism as their key and regular information sources.

We are witnessing the evolution of new media outlets; these development tendencies are manifesting themselves across all spheres of the industrial segment of journalism, on a global scale. Worldwide economic indicators associated with the press market—most of all newspaper circulation and advertising sales—suggest that the crisis scenarios, according to which the traditional press will cease to exist completely, are most likely exaggerative. However, we have to accept the fact that the dominant position of newspapers as the most prominent information sources is gone forever. Along with analysing the technical and technological shifts in news‐making, it is also necessary to constantly reconsider the readers’ preferences. While the traditional press is still popular with the middle‐aged and older generations of media recipients, the young people seem to abandon the long‐existing means of mass communication in favour of small screens of their mobile phones or tablets; almost all of them watch or follow digital information sources and accounts of the mainstream (and often also alternative or citizen) media producers available via social networks. Online communication’s importance is growing significantly. This development tendency will only intensify in the near future—the previously mentioned research data by European Communication Monitor 2016 predicting future development of communication trends claim mobile communication is to become the most important form of audience address in 2019, closely followed by social media and social networks, online communication via websites, e‐mail, intranets and press and media relations with online newspapers/magazines ([ 21 ], p. 61). Sociocultural factors, rituals and habits of the readers are also of high importance. We may state that the key to economic success and popularity—regardless of which kind of media or distribution channels we are talking about—always lies in understanding the audiences and their behavioural patterns, expectations and needs.

The need for creating and implementing innovations and innovative processes is one of the most essential perspectives bound to today’s journalistic production. The issue of universal design of communication devices is being discussed very often; it is true that journalistic products should be disseminated via user‐friendly platforms and interfaces so that all people, including those suffering from serious physical or mental impairments, would be able to access them easily. Contemporary journalism needs to implement innovations very quickly; online versions of the press and mobile applications have to closely watch all emerging trends in digital communication in order to maintain their competitiveness. It seems that social media are one of the most important communication spaces of today. Their future development will—most likely—determine new forms and variations of journalism, whether those bound to trained professionals or those created and disseminated by other types of producers (e.g. citizen journalists and the like). As noted by Pravdová, the first places in the script—regardless of how and where the journalistic contents are published—seem to be reserved for topics which are more entertaining or shocking for the readers, i.e. those which contain more tabloid than serious traits. The authors seldom have the ambition to offer traditional journalistic ‘bonuses’ (clarification of causes, consequences, relations and connections); instead, they tend to base the production and interpretation framework of the acquired information on specific types of information‐entertainment hybrids. That is why the academic discourse on the related topics has been rather critical and sometimes even unable to address the ongoing changes objectively [ 40 ]. According to Eldridge, the emphasis on novelty and revolution ‘lent itself to descriptive writing, and technological shifts and radical change were discussed from this ‘novelty’ perspective’. The author perceives this focus as misleading and insufficient for assessing the impact on journalism and journalism studies that accompanied ‘the digital turn’ ([ 3 ], p. 46).

Today’s practices employed by Slovak newsrooms and editorial teams suggest that the ever‐growing portfolio of online activities is very demanding in terms of human resources—’multimedia journalists’ and highly media literate professionals are needed urgently. However, the current economic situation of the newspaper publishers does not favour the traditional press, and many skilled journalists abandon their hard‐won editorial positions to succeed in different and more financially interesting professions (e.g. they become PR managers, spokesmen or even politicians). Editorial offices therefore strive to find an optimal set of economic and personal interconnections between their print and online redactions, mostly with regard to publishing houses’ priorities and economic imperatives. Since this transformation is continual and may take long years, only the future will show whether their current solutions are adequate and prospective or not.

Acknowledgments

This chapter was elaborated within the research project supported by the Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (VEGA) No. 1/0611/16 titled ‘Multi‐platform Concepts of Journalism in the Context of Development of Digital Technologies in Media Environment in the Slovak Republic’.

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• 29. Pravda . [Internet]. 2017. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/pravdask/?fref=ts [Accessed: 14 January 2017]
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• 31. McNally, P. Guardian Digital Chief: Killing Off Comments ‘a Monumental Mistake’. [Internet]. 2015. Available from: https://www.newsrewired.com/2015/02/03/guardian‐digital‐chief‐killing‐off‐comments‐a‐monumental‐mistake/ [Accessed: 11 January 2017]
• 32. Albinsson, PA, Perera, BY. Consumer activism through social media. Carrots versus sticks. In: Close, AG, editor. Online Consumer Behavior: Theory and Research in Social Media, Advertising and E‐tail. 1st ed. New York: Routledge; 2012. pp. 101−131. 97818489698.ch5
• 33. Follrichová, M. Printové médiá v digitálnom veku a vysokoškolská príprava žurnalistov. In: Horváth, M, editor. 60 rokov vysokoškolského štúdia žurnalistiky na Slovensku. 1st ed. Bratislava: Stimul; 2013. pp. 158−171. 9788081270901.ch8
• 34. Newman, N. Journalism, Media and Technology Predictions 2016. [Internet]. 2016. Available from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Journalism,%20media%20and%20technology%20predictions%202016.pdf [Accessed: 18 January 2017]
• 35. Zaušková, A, Madleňák, A. Communication for Open Innovation: Towards Technology Transfer and Knowledge Diffusion. 1st ed. Łódz: Księży Młyn Dom Wydawniczy Michał Koliński; 118 p. 9788377292488
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• 37. Nielsen, J. Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing; 1999. 432 p 9781562058104
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• 39. McNair, B. The transformation of media and journalism in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989: From control to chaos? In: Jirák, J, Köpplová, B, Kollmanová, DK, editors. Médiá dvacet let poté. 1st ed. Praha: Portál; 2009. pp. 12−23. 9788073674465.ch2
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How might news platforms and products ensure that ethical journalism on chronic issues is not drowned out by the noise of runaway political news cycles?

How can media institutions facilitate the free flow of information and promote truth during an election cycle shrouded in misinformation?

A reporter faces a choice between protecting a source or holding a source accountable for their public actions.

Should a source’s name be redacted retroactively from a student newspaper’s digital archive?

Should a student editor decline to publish an opinion piece that is culturally insensitive?

A tweet goes viral, but its news value is questionable.

What should student editors do if an opinion piece is based on factual inaccuracies?

Do student journalists’ friendships constitute a conflict of interest?

Is granting sexual assault survivors anonymity an act of journalistic compassion, or does it risk discrediting them?

Should student journalists grant anonymity to protect undocumented students?

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• “Ad”mission of guilt
• “Do I stop him?”
• Newspaper joins war against drugs
• Have I got a deal for you!
• Identifying what’s right
• Is “Enough!” too much?
• Issues of bench and bar
• Knowing when to say “when!”
• Stop! This is a warning…
• Strange bedfellows
• Gambling with being first
• Making the right ethical choice can mean winning by losing
• Playing into a hoaxster’s hands
• “They said it first”
• Is it news, ad or informercial?
• Letter to the editor
• Games publishers play
• An offer you can refuse
• An oily gift horse
• Public service . . . or “news-mercials”
• As life passes by
• Bringing death close
• A careless step, a rash of calls
• Distortion of reality?
• Of life and death
• Naked came the rider
• “A photo that had to be used”
• A picture of controversy
• Freedom of political expression
• Brother, can you spare some time?
• Columnist’s crusade OK with Seattle
• Kiss and tell
• The making of a govenor
• Past but not over
• Of publishers and politics
• To tell the truth
• Truth & Consequences
• “Truth boxes”
• When journalists become flacks
• A book for all journalists who believe
• The Billboard Bandit
• Food for thought
• Grand jury probe
• Judgement on journalists
• Lessons from an ancient spirit
• Lying for the story . . .
• Newspaper nabs Atlanta’s Dahmer
• One way to a good end
• Over the fence
• “Psst! Pass it on!”
• Rules aren’t neat on Crack Street
• “Someone had to be her advocate”
• Trial by Fire
• Trial by proximity
• Using deceit to get the truth
• When advocacy is okay
• Witness to an execution
• Are we our brother’s keeper? . . . You bet we are!
• Betraying a trust
• Broken promise
• “But I thought you were . . . ”
• “Can I take it back?”
• Competitive disadvantage
• Getting it on tape
• The great quote question
• How to handle suicide threats
• Let’s make a deal!
• A phone-y issue?
• The source wanted out
• The story that died in a lie
• Thou shalt not break thy promise
• Thou shalt not concoct thy quote
• Thou shalt not trick thy source
• Too good to be true
• Vulnerable sources and journalistic responsibility
• The way things used to be . . .
• When a story just isn’t worth it
• When a story source threatens suicide
• When public should remain private
• The ethics of “outing”
• “For personal reasons”
• Intruding on grief
• Intruding on private pain
• Privacy case settled against TV station
• Seeing both sides
• Two views on “outing”
• Unwanted spotlight
• Whose right is it anyway?
• Other views on the Christine Busalacchi case
• The death of a soldier
• Firing at Round Rock
• A kinder, gentler news media
• Operation: Buy yourself a parade
• Rallying ’round the flag
• “Salute to military” ads canceled
• Tell the truth, stay alive
• The windbags of war
• Absent with no malice
• Anonymity for rape victims . . .
• An exception to the rule
• The boy with a broken heart
• Civilly suitable
• Creating a victim
• “Everyone already knew”
• An exceptional case
• Innocent victims
• Minor infraction
• Names make news
• Naming a victim
• Naming “johns”
• Profile of controversy
• What the media all missed
• Punishing plagiarizers
• Sounding an alarm on AIDS
• Suffer the children
• Anchor’s away
• The day the earth stood still
• Doing your own ethics audit
• Good guys, bad guys and TV news
• Is it just me, or . . . ?
• The Post’s exam answer story
• TV station “teases” suicide
• Yanking Doonesbury
• The year in review
• Colorado media’s option play
• Deadly lesson
• Deciding which critically ill person gets coverage
• When journalists play God . . .
• A delicate balance
• The Fallen Servant
• Handle with care
• It’s the principle, really
• Killing news
• Maybe what seems so right is wrong
• On the line
• Protest and apology after Daily Beacon story
• Red flag for badgering
• Sharing the community’s grief
• The “super-crip” stereotype
• “And then he said *&%*!!!”
• When big is not better
• When the KKK comes calling
• Not the straight story
• Agreeing to disagree
• All in the family
• Family feud
• Author! Author!
• The Bee that roared
• Brewing controversy
• Building barriers
• Other views from librarians
• The ethics of information selling
• Close to home
• Family ties
• How now, sacred cow?
• The ties that bind
• “Like any other story”
• When your newspaper is the news
• Not friendly fire
• Overdraft on credibility?
• The problem is the writing
• Written rules can be hazardous
• Project censored, sins of omission and the hardest “W” of all – “why”
• Risking the newsroom’s image
• The Media School

Ethics Case Studies

Ethics cases online.

This set of cases has been created for teachers, researchers, professional journalists and consumers of news to help them explore ethical issues in journalism. The cases raise a variety of ethical problems faced by journalists, including such issues as privacy, conflict of interest, reporter- source relationships, and the role of journalists in their communities.

The initial core of this database comes from a series of cases developed by Barry Bingham, Jr., and published in his newsletter, FineLine. The school is grateful to Bingham for his permission to make these cases available to a wider audience.

You may download cases for classes, research or personal use. Permission is granted for academic use of these cases, including inclusion in course readers for specific college courses. This permission does not extend to the republication of the cases in books, journals or electronic form.

Note: We are indebted to Professor Emeritus David Boeyink, who developed this project several years ago.

Aiding law enforcement

• “Ad”mission of guilt: Court-ordered ads raise ethical questions
• “Do I stop him?”: Reporter’s arresting question is news
• Fairness: A casualty of the anti-drug crusade
• Newspaper joins war against drugs: Standard-Times publishes photos of all suspected drug offenders
• Have I got a deal for you!: The line between cooperation and collusion
• Identifying what’s right: Photographer’s ID used in hostage release
• Is “Enough!” too much?: Editors split on anti-drug coupons
• Issues of bench and bar: In this case, a TV reporter is the judge
• Knowing when to say “when!”: Drawing the line at cooperating with authorities
• Stop! This is a warning . . . : Suppressing news at police request
• Strange Bedfellows: Federal agents in a TV newsroom

Being first

• Gambling with being first: The media drive to score on the Isiah Thomas story
• Playing into a hoaxster’s hands: How the Virginia media got suckered
• “They said it first”: Is that reason for going for the story?

Bottom-line decisions

• Is it news, ad or infomercial?: The line between news and advertising is going, going . . .
• Games publishers play: Allowing an advertiser to call the shots
• An offer you can refuse: The selling of Cybill to the Enquirer
• An oily gift horse: saying “No!” to Exxon
• Public service. . .or “news-mercials”: The blending of television news and advertising

Controversial photos

• As life passes by: A journalist’s role: watch and wait
• Bringing death close: Publishing photographs of human tragedy
• A careless step, a rash of calls: “Unusual” photo of AIDS walkathon raises hackles” 
• Distortion of reality?: “Punk for Peace” photograph draws fire
• Of life and death: Photos capture woman’s last moments
• “A photo that had to be used”: Anatomy of a newspaper’s decision
• A picture of controversy: Pulitzer photos show diverse editorial standards

Covering politics

• Freedom of political expression: Do journalists forfeit their right?
• Brother, can you spare some time?: TV stations give candidates air time
• Columnist’s crusade OK with Seattle Times
• Kiss and tell: Publishing details of a mayor’s personal life
• The making of a governor: How media fantasy swayed an election
• Past but not over: When history collides with the Present
• Of publishers and politics: Byline protest threatened at Star Tribune
• To tell the truth: Why I didn’t; why I regret it
• Truth & Consequences: The public’s right to know . . . at what cost?
• “Truth boxes”: Media monitoring of TV campaign ads
• When journalists become flacks: Two views on what to do and when to do it

Getting the story

• A book for all journalists who believe: Accuracy is our highest ethical debate
• The Billboard Bandit: Did the newspaper get graffiti on its reputation
• Food for thought: You are what you eat . . . and do
• Grand jury probe: TV journalists indicted for illegal dogfight
• Judgment on journalists: Do they defiantly put themselves “above the law?”
• Lessons from an ancient spirit: Why I participated in a peyote ritual
• Lying for the story . . . :Or things they don’t teach in journalism school
• Newspaper nabs Atlanta’s Dahmer: Another predator who should’ve been stopped: Was it homophobia?
• One way to a good end: Reporter cuts corners to test capital drug program
• Over the fence: A case of crossing the line for a story
• “Psst! Pass it on!”: Why are journalists spreading rumors?
• Rules aren’t neat on Crack Street: Journalists know the rules; they also know that the rules don’t always apply when confronted with life-threatening situations
• “Someone had to be her advocate”: A newspaper’s crusade to keep a child’s death from being forgotten
• Trial by Fire: Boy “hero” story tests media
• Trial by proximity: How close is too close for a jury and a reporter?
• Using deceit to get the truth: When there’s just no other way
• When advocacy is okay: Access is an acceptable journalist’s cause
• White lies: Bending the truth to expose injustice
• Witness to an execution: KQED sues to videotape capital punishment

Handling sources

• Are we our brother’s keeper? . . . You bet we are!
• Betraying a trust: Our story wronged a naive subject
• Broken Promise: Breaching a reporter-source confidence
• “But I thought you were . . .”: When a source doesn’t know you are a reporter
• “Can I take it back?”: Why we told our source ‘yes’
• Competitive disadvantage: Business blindsided by unnamed sources
• Getting it on tape: What if you don’t tell them?
• The great quote question: How much tampering with quotations can journalists ethically do?
• Let’s make a deal!: The dangers of trading with sources
• A phone-y issue?: Caller ID raises confidentiality questions
• The source wanted out: Why our decision was ‘no’
• The story that died in a lie: Questions about truthfulness kill publication
• Thou shalt not break thy promise: Supreme Court rules on betraying sources’ anonymity 
• Thou shalt not concoct thy quote: Supreme Court decides on the rules of the quotation game
• Thou shalt not trick thy source: Many a slip twixt the promise and the page
• Too good to be true: Blowing the whistle on a lying source
• Vulnerable sources and journalistic responsibility: Are we our brother’s keeper?
• The way things used to be . . . : Who says this new “objectivity” is better?
• When a story just isn’t worth it: Holding information to protect a good source
• When a story source threatens suicide: “I’m going to kill myself!”

Invading privacy

• The ethics of “outing”: Breaking the silence code on homosexuality
• “For personal reasons”: Balancing privacy with the right to know
• Intruding on grief: Does the public really have a “need to know?”
• Intruding on private pain: Emotional TV segment offers hard choice
• Seeing both sides: A personal and professional dilemma
• Two views on “outing”: When the media do it for you
• Two views on “outing”: When you do it yourself
• Unwanted Spotlight: When private people become part of a public story
• Whose right is it anyway?: Videotape of accident victim raises questions about rights to privacy

Military Issues

• The death of a soldier: Hometown decision for hometown hero
• Firing at Round Rock: Editor says “unpatriotic” story led to dismissal  
• A kinder, gentler news media?: Post-war coverage shows sensitivity to families
• Operation: Buy yourself a parade: New York papers pitch in for hoopla celebrating hide-and-seek war
• Rallying ’round the flag: The press as U.S. propagandists
• “Salute to military” ads canceled
• Tell the truth, stay alive: In covering a civil war, honesty is the only policy
• The windbags of war: Television’s gung-ho coverage of the Persian Gulf situation

Naming newsmakers

• Absent with no malice: Omitting part of the story for a reason
• Anonymity for rape victims . . . : should the rules change?
• An exception to the rule: a decision to change names
• The boy with a broken heart: Special problems when juveniles are newsmakers
• Civilly suitable: If law requires less, should media reveal more?
• Creating a victim: Plot for a fair story may not be foolproof
• “Everyone already knew”: A weak excuse for abandoning standards
• An exceptional case: Hartford Courant names rape victim
• Innocent victims: Naming the guilty . . . but guiltless
• Minor infraction: A newspaper’s case for breaking the law
• Names make news: One newspaper debates when and why
• Naming a victim: When do you break your own rule?
• Naming “johns”: Suicide raises ethical questions about policy
• Profile of controversy: New York Times reporter defends story on Kennedy rape claimant 
• What the media all missed: Times reporter finally sets record straight on Palm Beach rape profile
• Punishing plagiarizers: Does public exposure fit the sin?
• Sounding an alarm on AIDS: Spreading the word about someone who’s spreading the disease
• Suffer the Children: Journalists are guilty of child misuse

Other topics

• Anchor’s away: Where in the world is she? Or does it matter?
• The day the earth stood still: How the media covered the “earthquake”
• Good guys, bad guys and TV news: How television and other media promote police violence
• The Post’s exam answer story
• TV station “teases” suicide
• The year in review: 1990’s biggest ethical headaches and journalistic bloopers

Sensitive news topics

• Colorado media’s option play: Most passed; did they also fumble?
• Deadly lesson: Warning about sexual asphyxiation
• A delicate balance: Mental breakdowns & news coverage
• The Fallen Servant: When a hero is not a hero
• Handle with care: Priest murder story required extra sensitivity
• It’s the principle, really: Timing and people’s money matter, too
• Killing news: Responsible coverage of suicides
• Maybe what seems so right is wrong: A medical condition media-generated money can’t cure
• On the line: A reporter’s job vs. human decency
• Red flag for badgering: Ombudsman takes sportswriter to task
• Sharing the community’s grief: Little Rock news coverage of three teen-age suicides
• Suffer the children: Was story on molestation worth the human cost?
• The “super-crip” stereotype: Press victimization of disabled people
• “And then he said *&%*!!!”: When sexist and vulgar remarks are new
• When big is not better: Playing down a story for the community good
• When the KKK comes calling: What’s the story?
• Not the straight story: Can misleading readers ever be justified?

Workplace issues

• Agreeing to disagree: How one newspaper handles off-hour activities
• All in the family: When a journalist’s spouse creates a conflict of interests
• Family feud: Handling conflicts between journalists and partners
• Author! Author!: Ethical dilemmas when reporters turn author
• The Bee that roared: Taking a stand for editorial independence
• Brewing controversy: The commercialization of Linda Ellerbee
• Building barriers: The case against financial involvement
• Other views from librarians: When interests of client and newsroom conflict
• The ethics of information selling: Problems for library reference services
• Close to home: When your newsroom is part of the story
• Family Ties: When are relationships relationships relevant?
• How now, sacred cow?: United Way’s favored treatment by the media
• The ties that bind: Publisher’s link to United Way raises questions
• “Like any other story”: Can it be when it’s your union vs. your paper?
• When your newspaper is the news: Editors discuss their experiences
• Not friendly fire: News director at odds with CBS over story
• Overdraft on credibility?: Reporter faces conflict-of-interest charges
• Written rules can be hazardous: A lawyer views ethics codes
• Project censored, sins of omission and the hardest “W” of all – “why”
• Risking the newsroom’s image: How editors, in a good cause, can strain independence

Ethics Case Studies resources and social media channels

Resources for Educators & Students

ETHICS IN A NUTSHELL

Ethics in a Nutshell  provides an overview of ethics and journalism ethics. It identifies the major approaches to ethics and models of ethical reasoning. The nature of ethics, range of ethics, theoretical and applied ethics, and types of theories are discussed.

DIGITAL MEDIA ETHICS

Digital Media Ethics  deals with the distinct ethical problems, practices and norms of digital news media. Digital news media includes online journalism, blogging, digital photojournalism, citizen journalism and social media. It includes questions about how professional journalism should use this ‘new media’ to research and publish stories, as well as how to use text or images provided by citizens.

GLOBAL MEDIA ETHICS

Global Media Ethics  addresses development of a comprehensive set of principles and standards for the practice of journalism in an age of global news media. New forms of communication are reshaping the practice of a once parochial craft serving a local, regional or national public.

THE SHADID CURRICULUM

The Shadid Curriculum draws from the journalism of those who have won or been named a finalist of the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, and encourages student journalists to place themselves in the position of making difficult journalistic decisions.

Teaching Ethics

These teaching resources, which are compiled by the Media Ethics Division of the AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication), cover a broad range of materials for teaching media or journalism ethics, including advertising, public relations and entertainment ethics.

Case Studies

Class Activities

Teaching Resources

• Computer Science
• Computer Communications (Networks)

Shifting Journalistic Ethics in the Internet Age, Case Study: Violation of Journalistic Ethics in Journalistic Products and Journalist Behavior in Online Media

• November 2019
• Komunikator 11(2)

• Mercu Buana University of Yogyakarta

Digital Platforms and Journalistic Careers: A Case Study of Substack Newsletters

Table of Contents

Executive summary.

In 2018, the technology reporter Taylor Lorenz predicted journalists would adopt influencer tactics to grow their own audiences and directly distribute content to their followers. Since then, journalists have continued to experiment with using digital platforms as part of their career activities. These digital tools provide journalists with the opportunity to capitalize on and monetize their personal brands and skills. In 2020, Lorenz followed up her prediction, anticipating that we will now begin to see “the dark side of this movement.” While independence provides journalists with new career opportunities, it also presents challenges as they risk burnout, precarity, audience pressures, and backlash for their independent work. 

The media is often studied as either institutional news work or social media activity. However, on digital platforms journalists increasingly blur the lines between personal and professional, institutional and independent, and reporting and commentary. Opportunities to monetize online content, connect with new audiences, and pursue creative and multimedia projects expand the ways in which journalists can piece together their careers. 

Thus, questions arise about how journalists structure and conceptualize their work when working on digital platforms. Why and how do journalists use these tools? What do journalists see as the tools’ strengths and weaknesses, and how do they fit into the broader media ecosystem? In what ways do they complement or contradict journalistic norms and standards? 

This report draws on a case study of journalists who use the digital newsletter platform Substack to understand how such platforms affect their work, careers, and identities. Through a combination of computational and qualitative methods, I seek to understand who uses Substack, why journalists use the platform, how they use it, and how Substack relates to the broader media ecosystem. 

I identify three dominant themes that explain how journalists use and interpret Substack. Each theme carries implications for how journalists structure their careers, produce media content, and conceptualize their identity.

• Journalists who view newsletters as a career resource use Substack to enhance their work within the traditional legacy media industry. They use their newsletters to create a persona as an expert on a niche topic, publicize their work, practice professional skills, and build a loyal audience in hopes of achieving career advancements. Most in this group tend to offer their newsletters for free; however, some who view themselves as experts in the topics on which they write charge a subscription fee. They seek to continue to uphold journalistic norms of objectivity, fairness, and balance even when embracing the freedom of work on digital platforms. In this way, these writers rely on ties with institutional media outlets to which they seek to link their careers. Strong ties to the media industry and value of journalistic norms strengthen their identification as journalists as a core aspect of their sense of self. 
• Alternatively, some pursue newsletters as an alternative media model . These journalists critique dominant media outlets, highlighting experiences of precarity, inefficiencies, and the ways in which norms of objectivity exclude personalized forms of information production and audience engagement. Within their newsletters, these writers strive to produce alternative stories that they feel dominant media institutions do not support or incentivize. Paid subscription models offer a new funding stream that grants writers independence to capitalize on their positionality and personal experiences as a legitimate source of content production. Thus, these journalists express broadened conceptions of their professional identity defined by innate qualities and skills as they seek to build careers unconstrained by institutional norms and barriers.
• Finally, a third subset of journalists define their newsletters as a lifeboat . For these journalists, newsletters serve as stopgaps when they lack other career opportunities and resources. These journalists are critical of the economic feasibility, informational quality, and role of technology companies in newsletter media models. In this way, they remain skeptical of Substack and do not plan to use the platform for a prolonged period. Feelings of hopelessness with the media industry led these writers to distance themselves from their professional identity as journalists. 

These three themes illustrate how digital tools expand the ways in which journalists pursue careers and conceptualize their work. By highlighting the multiple ways in which a digital platform affects the careers and structure of journalism, the report emphasizes the ambiguous implications of technological change, rather than representing it as predetermining changes or affecting those who use digital tools all in the same way. 1 Lee, Kevin Woojin, and Elizabeth Anne Watkins, “From Performativity to Performances: Reconsidering Platforms’ Production of the Future of Work, Organizing, and Society.” Sociologica 14(3), 205-15. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11673 The report concludes with a discussion of the implications of the diverse uses of digital platforms for journalists on the trustworthiness and consistency of information in the public sphere.

Introduction 

Ben started writing about hip-hop as a freelance journalist in 2014. He gradually built up connections with major outlets, producing articles picked up by business and culture magazines. However, Ben felt dissatisfied by the transactional nature of his work. “It didn’t really feel like I was making a true impact beyond getting an occasional check,” he explains. Ben wanted to make more of an impact with his writing. He wanted to build a relationship with his readers, rather than “writing for the editors” to make a living. 

In 2017, Ben started an email newsletter focused on the artists, producers, and fans innovating the business of hip-hop. The newsletter allowed him to build an ongoing and direct relationship with his readers and capitalize on his expertise in his niche topic. 

He describes his motivation to start the newsletter:

It was the opportunity to take advantage of the changing landscape in digital media, but also have an opportunity to elevate and have a proper home for the type of things that I was writing.… I saw what a few other early writers were doing in this space, where they were taking advantage of the tools and the platforms to create a home for their writing, and in many ways, being able to build a sustainable career and enterprise off that. It was taking advantage of the niche economics that I think are possible with the internet today, where because of how cheap it can be to get something started, you don’t necessarily need to have a vast user base. You can have a publication that appeals to a pretty small base, but a passionate base of readers, and then just build a business model around that.

Ben’s newsletter has grown into his full-time occupation, with more than ten thousand paying subscribers. He expresses pride in the entrepreneurialism of his pursuits and hopes to see “more independent media own their particular niches,” through which writers can “succeed to do what they want to do full-time.”

Ben’s story exemplifies how digital technologies are creating opportunities for journalists and information producers to structure their careers to produce and distribute content in new ways. Traditionally, dominant professional institutions—most notably legacy media publications and more recently digital news outlets—structured journalistic norms and dictated career success. These institutions served as gatekeepers that enabled insular professional groups to maintain control over the production and distribution of legitimate knowledge and information. 2 Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Thomas Hanitzsch, eds., The Handbook of Journalism Studies, International Communication Association (ICA) Handbook Series (New York: Routledge, 2009). They promoted techniques, such as the norms of reporting, sourcing, and fact-checking, as methods of producing “objective” information. 3 Michael Schudson, Discovering the News (New York: Basic Books, 1981). Additionally, through the creation of explicitly professional spaces and publications, they intended to separate journalists’ professional roles as revealers or communicators of external facts from their private roles as subjective individuals with their own worldviews and values. 

In contemporary media work, digital technologies and online platforms allow journalists to use a variety of tools to produce and distribute content. Digital tools offer journalists new opportunities and constraints. Online platforms challenge the clear boundaries between professional and personal forms of content production. 4 Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan, “Seeking Purity, Avoiding Pollution: Strategies for Moral Career Building,” Organization Science, November 24, 2021, orsc.2021.1514, https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1514. Furthermore, digital platforms, direct distribution channels, and diverse forms of information communication—podcasts, liveblogs, newsletters, etc.—blur the line between professional journalism and the increase of other types of digital creatives and content producers. 5 Emily Bell and Taylor Owen, “The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley reengineered journalism” (Columbia Journalism Review, 2017). Digital tools thus require journalists to combine networks and strategies from professional journalism with entrepreneurship, microcelebrity, influencer culture, research, and academia. Additionally, digitization creates new incentives for news work and ways of defining success, including a focus on audience engagement, circulation metrics, and digital attention. 6 Angele Christin, Metrics at Work (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2020); Caitlin Petre, “The Traffic Factories: Metrics at Chartbeat, Gawker Media, and The New York Times,” Tow Center for Digital Journalism. A Tow/Knight Report (Columbia School of Journalism, 2015); Rebecca Jablonsky, Tero Karppi, and Nick Seaver, “Introduction: Shifting Attention,” Science, Technology, & Human Values, November 22, 2021, 016224392110588, https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211058823. Last, as journalists engage in independent forms of online content production, technology companies serve an increasingly central role in structuring how journalists produce—and audiences access—news and information. 7 Matt Carlson, “Automating Judgment? Algorithmic Judgment, News Knowledge, and Journalistic Professionalism,” New Media, 2017, 18. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444817706684  

Simultaneously, journalists face challenges in legacy media work due to increasing employment precarity and distrust of mainstream institutions. Dominant media outlets increasingly favor part-time, contingent, or contract-based work. 8 Chadha, Kalyani, and Linda Steiner, eds. Newswork and Precarity. London; New York: Routledge, 2022.; Cohen, Nicole S. “Entrepreneurial Journalism and the Precarious State of Media Work.” South Atlantic Quarterly 114, no. 3 (July 2015): 513–33.; Vallas, Steven P., and Angèle Christin. “Work and Identity in an Era of Precarious Employment: How Workers Respond to ‘Personal Branding’ Discourse.” Work and Occupations 45, no. 1 (February 2018): 3–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888417735662 In 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that newsroom employment has fallen 26 percent since 2008. 9 Mason Walker, “U.S. newsroom employment has fallen 26% since 2008,” Pew Research Center , July 23, 2021/. Employment precarity incentivizes or necessitates journalists to seek alternative career opportunities, such as using digital platforms. Additionally, Americans remain skeptical about journalists’ and media companies’ ability to communicate quality information. The percentage of Americans who say they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass mainstream media fell from 53 percent to 40 percent between 2002 and 2020, according to a Gallup poll. 10 Megan Brenan, “Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media,” Gallup.com, September 30, 2020. That distrust contributes to news consumers seeking alternative sources of content outside of standard outlets and publications. 

This report focuses on journalists who write independent email newsletters on Substack within the context of the changing status and role of legacy and digital news work. I draw on fifty-two interviews with journalists who write email newsletters to offer a content analysis of their professional backgrounds and newsletter texts. I focus on how the prevalence of platform technologies and the changing role of media institutions affect the ways in which journalists navigate career opportunities, conceptualize their goals, produce content for their audiences, and define their professional identities. This includes understanding journalists’ motivation for working on digital platforms: how they distinguish career transition points and define success, produce content, perceive their audience and networks, and incorporate digital tools into their careers. 

The report proceeds in three additional sections. In section one, I describe the Substack case study and outline my research methodology. Section two presents the findings of the report in two subsections. First, I use computational data to explore newsletter writers on the platform and the network structure of newsletter content. I then use my core findings to draw on qualitative data to discuss three dominant themes that emerged from my interviews and explain how interviewees use and understand Substack: using newsletters as a (i) career resource, (ii) alternative media model, or (iii) lifeboat. Each of these themes relates to distinct goals, strategies for content production, and conceptions of professional identity. Finally, the report concludes with a discussion about how the varied ways in which journalists approach and interpret newsletter production relate to phenomena such as the crises of expertise, informational distrust, and post-truth politics.

Case Study and Method

This report focuses on journalists who use or have used the newsletter platform Substack. Focusing on a single platform allows comparisons of how journalists use the same digital tool.

Substack started in 2017 as an alternative media space in reaction to critiques of institutional and social media production. The company provides the infrastructure to write and distribute digital newsletters, giving creators control over their email subscription lists, archives, and intellectual property. Substack also focuses on writing as the main output versus requiring other technical or digital skills. The company targets journalists, writers, experts, and visual-content creators geared toward discursive output, although it has been expanding its focus and functionality. Journalists who use Substack largely do so for the purpose of sharing and producing textual information.

Substack was created by media insiders with the goal of using technology and entrepreneurship to help independent writers make a living by providing a direct distribution and subscription product. In doing so, Substack seeks to present an alternative to ad-supported media. The company contrasts its platform with those of advertisement-based media models that offer incentives toward shallow “clickbait” and “fake news.” Instead, Substack frames itself as a resource for free speech, “democratizing” discourse and producing “personal” and “trustworthy” content. Substack describes itself as a “platform” that “enables” content without dictating it, in contrast to a “publisher” that maintains content moderation discretion. However, the company has attracted controversy due to questions about content moderation and responsibility and accountability for discourse that is produced and distributed using the platform. 11 Pompeo, Joe. “‘There Has to Be a Line’: Substack’s Founders Dive Headfirst Into the Culture Wars.” Vanity Fair, May 23, 2022; Navlakha, Meera. “Why Substack Creators Are Leaving the Platform, Again.” Mashable, March 9, 2022; Schulz, Jacob. “Substack’s Curious Views on Content Moderation.” Lawfare, January 4, 2021. In response to criticism over free speech and writer precarity, the company has added new features for its users, such as access to legal advice, writer office hours, and community-building resources.  

As of 2021, Substack reported millions of users and more than a million paying subscribers. 12 Tiffany Hsu, “Substack’s Growth Spurt Brings Growing Pains,” The New York Times, April 13, 2022. Its top ten writers reportedly earn more than $7 million in annual revenue. The company is a venture-backed startup. Additionally, the company typically takes 10 percent of paid subscription fees, which range from approximately $5 to $50 per month but are not required. The most popular writers on Substack can make six-figure salaries and more yearly income than in standard media jobs; however, some writers often do not consider newsletter writing as a form of full-time work and thus may balance it with other professional commitments. 13 Chang, Clio. “The Substackerati.” Columbia Journalism Review, Winter 2020. Given its semiprofessional nature, Substack provides an ideal case study to understand how new career resources offered on digital platforms affect the goals, strategies, and identities of journalists. 

The report includes computational and qualitative data to assess journalists on Substack. Computational data include large-scale queries of information drawn directly from the platform, such as writer topics, professional backgrounds, and network patterns. These data provide an overview of who uses the platform and the subjects they cover to help inform the subsequent thematic analysis.

The report’s core findings are based on qualitative data from interviews with fifty-two journalists who write digital newsletters; analysis of their newsletter content, particularly About pages and initial posts that describe their newsletter’s content, purpose, and structure; and online information on their professional background, such as their LinkedIn page, Muck Rack profile, or personal website. Interview subjects were recruited from multiple points of contact to reflect a range of journalists using the platform. (See appendix A for descriptive statistics.) 14 The sample includes six writers who used Substack but switched to producing a digital newsletter on another platform. There was no discernible difference between the justifications for and use of Substack in this subset of interviewees and the larger sample.  

Initial respondents were identified using searches on Google and Substack. Additional respondents were recruited using snowball sampling. Respondents were identified as journalists based on how they self-describe in their newsletter profile, or by using information about their broader professional background available online. The sample captures journalists with a variety of careers that include both independent and institutional forms of work. 15 Media ecosystems have also been shown to have a relationship to partisan identity (see Benkler, Faris, and Roberts 2018; Hemmer 2016; Lemieux and Schmalzbauer 2000; Nadler, Bauer, and Konieczna 2020). The study includes participants with a range of political viewpoints, but did not create a representative sample based on partisanship.

Professionals most strongly associated with institutions are employed by a news media company and receive a sustainable salary from their place of employment. In contrast, independent workers take on freelance work with no primary employer and/or self-describe as “independent.” Interview questions were focused on the subject’s professional life, including how they go about their work, balance professional opportunities, and describe their goals and objectives. The research uses qualitative data to illuminate the ways in which digital platforms affect the practices and understandings of journalists, but does not provide a representative or generalizable sample. Textual data, including the About pages of each newsletter and the LinkedIn, Muck Rack, or personal website of interview respondents, supplement interview data to understand respondents’ backgrounds and trajectories. Conclusions are based on how interviewees describe the goals, content, and motivations for their newsletter connected to the structure of their careers and professional identities.

The findings proceed in two subsections. First, the report draws on computational data to generate a layout of the Substack platform. The computational data provide a map of what topics newsletter writers focus on, what types of writers use the tool, and how their newsletters fit within the broader media landscape. The report then draws on qualitative interview and content analysis data focused specifically on how and why these journalists use Substack. 

A Computational Layout: Writers on Substack

Using computational methods, a co-researcher, Nick Hagar, and I explore the types of writers and content available on Substack. 16 I would like to thank Nick Hagar for his assistance with computational models and analysis. Substack maintains a discovery feature that sorts newsletters by category. When this research was collected in 2021, it maintained nineteen topical categories and has since added six more. Using the search feature, we approximated the landscape of the most active newsletters on the platform and their categorical labels. 17 The newsletters that are not captured by category search appear far less active: a median of 7 total newsletter posts for general search results, compared with 42 for category search results. Newsletters sorted by category posted a median of 3 days ago, whereas in the general search sample newsletters posted a median of 58 days ago. Thus, Substack’s taxonomy offers a good representation of active newsletters on the platform. Augmenting this approach with other search functions returns small and abandoned newsletters.  

Table 1 provides an overview of how many active newsletters appear within each category through the Substack search function. At the time of our research our analysis identified 2,686 unique active newsletters, a breakdown of which is presented in Table 1. 

Table 1: Active newsletters by category. Percentages are rounded to one-tenth of a percent.

Unsurprisingly, most Substack newsletters focus on broad and standard categories of media production, such as culture and politics. After 2021, the introduction of new categories of music, comics, crypto, parenting, fiction, and podcasts shows that niche sections of the platform are growing. Additionally, the prevalence of technology as the most active category points to the types of stories and topics most accessible as an independent media source. Writing about technology needs only a computer and internet connection, meaning it requires fewer resources than field reporting. Later in the report, journalists discuss their ability to establish their expertise writing about digital media, making it a lucrative category for newsletter production.  

We manually classified the 2,686 active newsletters to understand the professional background of the authors on the platform. Information on authors’ professional background was gleaned from writer biographies, as well as general information available on the Web. 

Table 2 represents the background classifications based on the nine most common professional backgrounds found on Substack.

Table 2: Substack user professional backgrounds. Percentages are rounded to nearest one-tenth of a percent.

Once again unsurprisingly, writers and discursive content creators made up most newsletter producers, as well as professionals who use newsletters to capitalize on and share specific expertise. The data suggest that journalists account for about 20 percent of content producers on Substack. 

Last, we looked at the relationship between newsletters and other forms of media by comparing hyperlinking citation patterns. We include newsletters that published more than one public post between 2020 and 2021, published posts at a cadence of at least one every thirty days, and published at least one post that included a hyperlink to another webpage (all newsletters in our sample met these criteria). We were only able to access free posts, so our sample does not include paywalled content. This produced a sample of approximately 1.1 million hyperlinks across 139,353 posts from 2,553 active newsletters. 

The results show that writers most commonly cite major media and platform domains such as Twitter, YouTube, and t he New York Times (Table 3). For example, 77 percent of newsletter writers in the sample have linked to YouTube, and 5 percent of writers have linked to t he New York Times . Furthermore, while there is large overlap in linking domains, at most, the same unique URL appears in only 2 percent of newsletters. The infrequency with which newsletters link to one another or to the same news story highlights the siloed nature of newsletter production on Substack. Rather than structurally representing an alternative media environment, writers arguably show a strong reliance on institutional news and established platforms. 

Hyperlinking patterns in newsletters match the broader structure of digital attention and influence on the Web, relying on common platforms and domains that are viewed as legitimate, relevant, and likely to generate attention. 18 Lasorsa, Dominic L., Seth C. Lewis, and Avery E. Holton. “Normalizing Twitter: Journalism Practice in an Emerging Communication Space.” Journalism Studies 13, no. 1 (February 2012): 19–36, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/123293; Messner, Marcus, and Marcia Watson Distaso. “The Source Cycle: How Traditional Media and Weblogs Use Each Other as Sources.” Journalism Studies 9, no. 3 (June 2008): 447–63, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259563188_The_source_cycle_How_traditional_media_and_weblogs_use_each_other_as_sources; Noam, Eli M. Media Ownership and Concentration in America. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009; Usher, Nikki, and Yee Man Margaret Ng. “Sharing Knowledge and ‘Microbubbles’: Epistemic Communities and Insularity in US Political Journalism.” Social Media + Society 6, no. 2 (April 2020), https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2056305120926639. Thus, these results indicate that newsletters may be framed as an alternative or independent career resource, but are highly referential to and dependent on dominant media and technology platforms and publications. In this way, digital newsletters represent an element of an integrated and interdependent media environment that journalists must navigate to build their careers.

Table 3: Top 12 domain hyperlinks

Journalists’ uses and interpretations of Substack

Analysis of the qualitative data reveals three dominant themes in interviewees’ rationales for starting and maintaining Substack newsletters. Journalists I interviewed engage with and understand Substack as a (i) journalistic resource, (ii) alternative media model, or (iii) career lifeboat. Each use corresponds with different career goals, strategies of content production, and conceptions of professional identity.

Newsletters as a Journalistic Resource

Interviewees who use their digital newsletters as a career resource describe the ways in which they offer an outlet to establish a specialized portfolio, house a holistic body of work, practice the craft of writing, and secure additional career opportunities. One national political reporter describes how advice from a veteran journalist whom she admires to “build your quote-unquote personal brand and make a name for yourself” inspired her to start a newsletter. Such journalists saw newsletters as helpful in achieving career transitions. 

An early-career journalist who works for a digital outlet started a newsletter in hopes of acquiring a book deal:

I wanted to write a book proposal…but I didn’t have a body of writing on [the topic].… Once it became clear that I was not going to be able to build out the bulk of that body of writing at my current job, I started looking for a new job, and I started working on this Substack, which I also hope gets me a new job at some point down the line. I think that [it is helpful] if I have something I can point to, to prove I can write about this, people are interested in it, and react to it when I write about it, and you can read it all in one place.

By housing a body of work on the specialization she desires to write about, this journalist’s newsletter serves as a resource to showcase her ability to write, report, and think critically about that topic.

Journalists in this subset thought newsletters were particularly advantageous to build a specialization and gain credibility on niche topics. While they could not always control the topics they wrote about for institutional publications, they could tailor their newsletters to their interests and hopes for their future careers. 

Another early-career journalist describes how he uses his newsletter to build credibility writing about the media: 

I knew that I needed to establish an authority in this field and the process of writing something every week and being in conversation with other people and reading all the time. It’s a really virtuous cycle in the sense that by doing it, I make other people aware of me and my thoughts and my credibility.

The newsletter helps him maintain a schedule and structure. He advertises the success of his newsletter by listing major institutional news outlets that have cited his work, such as Vox, Nieman Lab, and Poynter. In this way, his newsletter serves as a tool to connect him with major outlets and media figures that model his career goals, using Substack as a career resource to build expertise and connections.

This subset of journalists also sees Substack as a resource to practice and experiment with writing. Many interviewees mention writing as one of their favorite aspects of their career, but lament barriers to writing on the job. 

A journalist recently employed as a breaking news reporter describes frustrations that detract from her enjoyment of the work: 

As a writer, it’s hard. You want to do your thing, to be reporting and writing, but there’s all these barriers. You can’t get a job. You can’t get paid. You might be sending lots of freelance pitches, but editors are just saying “No, no, no.” It feels like you can never just get the work done. This was a great opportunity for me to start doing the creative work and thinking and hold myself to my journalistic standards and practices.

She describes her newsletter as her “passion project,” to “report it out for myself to have the learning experience, to write about it, and really think about something on a little bit of a higher level than in my day-to-day breaking news role.” 

Other interviewees similarly describe their newsletters as outlets for “creativity,” a tool for “professional development,” or a “learning experience.” In this way, these journalists use their newsletters as an outlet to indulge aspects of their career that they feel are unfulfilled in other jobs. Newsletters also allow journalists to deepen skills central to their careers, such as writing, reporting, and critical thinking.

Most interviewees who use their newsletters as a professional resource offer free subscriptions. These journalists believe that keeping their newsletters free allows more readers to access their content and helps them publicize their work. As one interviewee describes: “Sneaking in my stories throughout my newsletter on Substack has been a really great way to get that into people’s inboxes and actually clicked on.” However, a few journalists who said they use the newsletter as a career resource do charge subscription fees. They view themselves as established experts on the topics that they write about, rather than using the newsletter as a resource to build expertise. 

An editorial director at a business and culture magazine describes her expertise based on her extensive work experience of more than a decade in multiple newsroom roles. Her newsletter, focused on the craft of journalism, has a monthly subscription fee. She decided to paywall the content because she “was putting time and effort into it” and “thought it was worth something.” 

Many journalists who consider themselves experts write on the media, news industry, and digital culture in their newsletters. In this way, the structure of journalistic work using digital tools creates opportunities for journalists to specialize and write about their experiences and knowledge of media and internet trends. 

Journalists using their newsletters as a career resource balance personalization and professional norms within their content. One journalist who specializes in audience engagement and new-media innovation notes that “keeping that personal note is really important,” especially to connect with and build a loyal audience. 

Another journalist, who writes about the intersection of gender and politics for a prominent American magazine, notes that the personal nature of the newsletter lessens hierarchical divides between writer and reader: 

I’m much more open in the Substack than you could be in a traditional magazine article.… When you do a…review for a mainstream newspaper there is more of a status divide. 

Thus, newsletters give these writers the opportunity to build more dialogic relationships with their readers and express more personalized viewpoints. 

While interviewees recognize that newsletters offer a more personal outlet, they remain careful to uphold professional norms of journalistic production. They do so by differentiating their newsletters from their formal career writing, and by integrating the role of their personal experience and voice within journalistic standards. 

A journalist who runs the culture and economics section of a digital outlet uses her newsletter to write articles related to, but separate from, her formal career: “The newsletter is connected to the interests of [my section], but not really something we would ever do.” She describes her newsletter as “janky” because it does not contain “original reporting…it’s mostly Googling.” The purpose of the newsletter is to write “something that’s my own, that has nothing to do with the job.” In this way, she separates the personal and playful nature of her newsletter from the standards and rigor associated with the journalistic norms important for her professional work.

Other writers uphold journalistic standards by incorporating the personal nature of the newsletter with journalistic norms. A national political reporter describes how he thinks “the objectivity of a journalist involves not coming into a story as a blank slate, but in the method that they report the story, and the fairness with which they report the story.” He says his personal identity influences how he relates to politics without compromising journalistic standards:

I grew up as a midwesterner, and so I have opinions about the unique identities of states like Michigan versus Ohio, or Indiana versus Illinois. I have preconceptions about the states, but as I’m reporting on them, I do think it’s possible to be cognizant of those preconceptions and use the method of reporting journalism to be open-minded and fair and balanced in the actual reporting about those states.

For him, the journalistic method of reporting neutralizes preconceived and personal perceptions to create “fair” and “balanced” information. 

Overall, however, these interviewees express concern about how newsletter production may affect journalistic standards without the enforcement of norms and gatekeeping provided by media institutions. Two interviewees explain their worries that newsletters cannot provide the same quality of information. 

The first, who writes for a prominent American magazine, claims:

[Newsletters are] great for comment. If you want to have strong opinions on established facts, then that’s something that newsletters can do very well. But who is the person doing the hardest bit of journalism, which is establishing the facts in the first place? There are no shortcuts for that, which takes a really long time and costs a lot of money.

The second journalist, who focuses on audience engagement for a national publication, agrees: 

I think about all the rigorous editing and the rigorous reporting that goes into more traditional outlets that is not done on the personal level, which I don’t think is bad all the time. But I do think that when we see personal reporters with their own newsletters pursuing ambitious stories, I think a lot of times there may be issues of accuracy. 

For these interviewees, journalistic norms of reporting, objectivity, and accuracy remain valuable and important standards. Newsletters prove useful as a tool for commentary, essaying, or, as one veteran reporter describes, “writing off the news”—using traditional news stories as a jumping-off point—but newsletters cannot stand in for the types of reporting core to journalistic norms and identity. Indeed, these journalists strongly identify with their professional roles. As one journalist describes: “It’s through me like a stick of rock. I don’t know what I would be if I didn’t do this job.… I would have to radically rethink my life and start all over again.” In this way, journalists use their newsletter in connection to dense networks and ties to the media industry that continue to structure journalistic careers, norms, and identity.  

Newsletters as a Journalistic Alternative

Interviewees who use Substack as their main career activity consider the platform to be an innovative, entrepreneurial venture to structure alternative career paths. They critique the structures and norms of institutional media, noting the ways in which Substack provides a new media model. Notably, they point to connections with corporations and reliance on advertising that corrupt the quality of information in the media. A beauty writer critiques the connection between beauty publications and the commercial beauty industry: “Publications typically work hand in hand with brands to create content, such as product reviews and stories with favorable PR angles.” Similarly, a political reporter critiques advertising media models for incentivizing clickbait and feeding polarization:

In the news world, most journalists, media outlets, television networks, and podcasts survive on advertisement revenue. Ad revenue is driven by viewership. That means the more people see an advertisement, the more valuable it is. This incentivizes reporters, editors, radio hosts, television stations, and news outlets to make their content as viral, explosive, and sensational as possible.… It also creates conflicts of interest between publishers and the people paying them to run their advertisements. 

The writer describes how he feels his newsletter offers a transformed product:

[My newsletter] is entirely subscriber supported. By asking my readers to support this newsletter instead of advertisers or investors, I am incentivized to create good content…not content that is clickbait or designed to go viral or make an advertiser happy.

By capitalizing on the subscriber model, he seeks to change the relationship between reader, writer, and journalistic content. Paid subscriptions directly connect him to his readers, making him accountable to and empowering his audience, rather than attracting investors or advertisers. In this way newsletters offer an alternative structure to produce news and information.

Journalists in the study also critiqued the hassle, inefficiency, and precarity of journalistic careers, incentivizing them to focus more on their newsletters as outlets in which they feel they have more control and freedom over their work. A veteran reporter describes how she experienced a decline in opportunities to write for major publications:

The media is shrinking…the traditional media that I’ve written for, like the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , all of these, they can’t afford freelancers. They don’t have space; they don’t have staff.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist similarly describes frustrating experiences working within institutional media:

It’s an annoying way to work, and it doesn’t pay great.… I would race to get a piece done, and then the publication would be like, “Oh, we’re actually not going to run it for the next 24 hours because this other thing happened.”… You end up playing email tag with an editor: it’s like, “Hey, did you get the piece that I sent you?” And then the news peg passes, and then you have to look for a new news peg, and then you have to rewrite the piece because time has gone by…then, like, having to rewrite it four hundred times because the news peg passed in the time that it took them to write you an email.

Starting a newsletter appealed to him because he can do “it on my own schedule.” He can directly distribute content to his readers when he feels his pieces are ready, rather than wait on the whims of a publication’s news cycle. Thus, newsletters offer an alternative that gives journalists freedom, independence, and control over their workflow.

Given the formalized nature of Substack as a career path, these journalists describe the importance of subscribers for their livelihood and as an economic model for their careers. An award-winning investigative journalist describes how his subscriber base serves as a career resource:

I can create a subscription base that will be portable, and maybe in some ways more durable, or no less durable, than actually getting a job at a big institution.

Another long-form journalist describes how he was inspired by the success of subscription podcasts to build his own newsletter:

For example, the Chapo Trap House guys who were making so much money on Patreon.… I was like, “Wow. It never occurred to me to do that.”… It was like, “So you can put something out in the world and people will pay you four, five, six bucks a month just because they like it. And you can make a lot of money that way.” I looked at that type of business model, and that’s what the Substack does.

In this way, digital platforms serve as a tool to actualize transactions between writers and readers. Subscriber models incentivize content quality by the necessity of attracting readers. Thus, from this perspective, subscriptions ensure newsletter integrity despite often lacking the traditional fact checkers or editors found in traditional media.  

Last, these interviewees critique power structures in institutional news that they feel limit the range of legitimate perspectives included in news content. A music writer describes his experience at a culture magazine that led him to quit and focus on his newsletter, where he can highlight different voices, perspectives, and stories. “People around me [at the magazine] were more interested in perpetuating misogyny and bigotry and marginalization of anybody that’s not a man, essentially, or identifies as a man,” he says.

Similarly, a food writer describes her dissatisfaction with institutional food media given the exclusion of multiple perspectives and political ideas:

When I was writing for food magazines it was very much centered on a middlebrow white American gaze. You’re writing for Middle America, and don’t upset them. That was the perspective.… There is just a lack of interest in systemic problems outside of talking about racial representation or gender representation. There’s an idea of diversity as just different skin colors and genders, and not political ideas. So that’s what I’m able to actually present in my newsletter.

She now focuses almost exclusively on her newsletter, where she writes about the intersection of food, ethical consumption, economics, and sustainability, hoping to inform readers that “food decisions aren’t made in a vacuum.” She values the fact that the Substack platform allows her to “own my own time” and “create the thread of my own thought” to produce alternative content and arguments she felt institutional publications did not accept.

Newsletters can offer an alternative space to produce content outside journalistic norms. Instead of adhering to norms of objectivity, journalists in this survey describe their methods of content production as intentionally incorporating subjectivity as a different basis to produce information. 

A journalist with a background in reporting on tech, markets, and fashion describes how when he worked for institutional publications, he felt tokenized as a reporter of color and forced to write about certain topics and narratives. In his newsletter, he embraces his full identity to center his point of view:

If you come from an underrepresented or overlooked or underserved community, it’s difficult to not bring all of you into a story and [keep] different parts of yourself siloed off to tell a story. That’s a bit dehumanizing. I think part of making roles and creating space for as many storytellers and journalists and reporters as possible is to really get rid of this idea that you can’t be fair or accurate if you have a point of view. I think that the idea of objectivity and leaving your identity at the door, all that does is serve patriarchal white supremacy. It serves the people who have always gotten to tell the stories.… I just try to tell stories that matter to me…I write from my point of view.

He challenges journalistic norms of objectivity by drawing on his own perspective as a legitimate alternative to inform his work.

In this way, newsletters shift journalistic identity to incorporate individual experience and traits traditionally conceptualized as separate from professional roles. Rather than describe their professional titles or learned skills as core to their identity, these journalists reference innate qualities such as “curiosity,” “empathy,” “deep thinking,” and “skepticism” as defining professional traits and identities. As one says: “Journalism for me is not a profession—it’s a personality disorder. I’m nosy. I’ve got a big mouth. I’m aggressive and pushy.” She identifies as a journalist as a personality trait and intrinsic part of her identity, rather than attaching the identity to a professional position, skill, or role. Journalistic status composes both a personal and professional identity. Journalists in the study continue to see themselves as professionals across contexts or roles, rather than within specific career positions or performing certain job skills. 

Newsletter as a Journalistic Lifeboat 

A third group of interviewees describes using Substack as a temporary tool when they lack other career opportunities or resources. These journalists tended to gravitate to the platform after losing employment at other media outlets. As such, Substack offers a way for them to structure their time, pursue their writing, maintain their journalistic identities, and continue in their professional field. The platform provides a free, accessible, but temporary outlet for journalists who hope to transition to other platforms or opportunities. 

These interviewees tended to be the most skeptical about Substack as a media model and platform. They do not see newsletter writing as a sustainable career activity or resource. Fundamentally, these journalists critique the financial model of newsletter writing and the difficulty of amassing subscribers without a pre-established reputation, digital following, or institutional ties to legacy media. 

A freelancer who decided to end his Substack newsletter describes the financial feasibility of the pursuit at length:

If you start a newsletter without a preexisting fan base, or at the very least a large and active Twitter following, building an audience…is very  tricky. You basically need to churn out posts and hope a couple of them go viral on Twitter so you get a ton of more subscribers.… But the economics of this are pretty unfriendly. If you got 500 subscribers to pay you $5 a month, you’d be making $2,500 a month, or, oops, actually $2,250 after Substack takes its cut. And you’re writing at a minimum a post a week, probably more than that. If you’re doing two posts a week, say eight a month, you’re actually only making $281.25 an article. That isn’t that  bad, but then you consider that the burger place down the street pays $19 an hour . You really aren’t in “livable wage” territory from a Substack alone until you have thousands of paid subscribers. And if you’re using Substack to supplement income from freelancing or a day job, it’s a  lot  of work.… Once you put up a paywall, you have the additional problem of a lot of your content now being hidden from public view, i.e., it can’t go viral and attract new subscribers.

He laments that subscription media models are unfeasible for most writers, as well as illogical, given the tension between paywalling content and attracting new subscribers. Furthermore, rather than newsletters serving as an outlet for alternative narratives or in-depth thoughts, he describes them as aimed toward “virality” and produced on a fast-paced timeline. Overall, by comparing Substack writing with service work, he highlights the low status and financial difficulties of the pursuit. 

These writers, like many others, describe growing their subscriber base as the most challenging part of producing a newsletter. Across the three categories of journalistic work, no writers felt they had figured out the best newsletter media model. All felt uncertainty in the best way to balance growth, financial viability, and content accessibility. The difficulty in monetizing their newsletters proved particularly detrimental to writers without other income streams. Thus, journalists relying on Substack as a lifeboat expressed the most frustration because they remain in precarious professional positions. 

A veteran reporter at a major urban paper lost his job when the publication went through layoffs. He started a Substack newsletter as “sort of my best option as far as employment.” However, after a few months he was disillusioned with the platform:

It’s not sustainable. It’s been very difficult, frankly, to increase subscriptions. I pretty much hit a wall about two months ago and haven’t been able to increase it. So I’m pretty down on the Substack model. I think there’s just too many things out there, too many subscriptions, and it’s too hard.

Newsletter writing becomes economically unsustainable without a substantial reader base. Indeed, interviewees described the most successful writers on the platform as those who “already had these huge Twitter followings” or “already have a brand, already have a name, and already have a reach.” In this way, these journalists see newsletter writing as supporting existing structures of power and privilege within the media, rather than providing an alternative environment.

Furthermore, these journalists argue that subscription newsletters do not incentivize quality information. Rather than newsletters serving as outlets for journalists to write about their passions, deepen their writing skills, or produce content from an alternative perspective, they feel as if newsletters do not allow for the types of meaningful content they strive to produce. 

A political reporter describes how creating newsletter content became less of a priority

“Write a new newsletter” gradually slipped to the bottom of my to-do pile. I did less reporting for the newsletter and treated it more like a place to put my thoughts about the stuff I was working on and reading.… I don’t really want to write these kinds of stories anymore.… “The conversation” often seems to consist of a gaggle of pundits and Twitter addicts nodding in agreement with one another.

Furthermore, other journalists in the survey describe Substack subscription models as seeming to prioritize sensationalist and potentially viral content to attract readers and generate attention. A culture writer who now works as part of a bundled newsletter cooperative describes such incentives:

The discursive oxygen around the site has been allocated or has been sucked up by people who are using it in a way to stoke rage, or stoke anger, outrage, that sort of thing. When you create those feelings, they become powerful feelings that make people want to subscribe.

In contrast, she aims to “contextualize,” “analyze,” and “do some reporting and actually talking to people” in her work. To her, anger and outrage do not equate to meaningful content production, even if they garner more attention or subscribers.

Some interviewees also critique Substack as a platform and business that participates in the media environment given the uneasy relationship between media and technology companies. One writer describes his worries about the power that technology companies play in structuring what digital content gains visibility: 

A lot of stuff with Big Tech and Facebook and Google is kind of scary these days, with a lot of alternative media locked out or at least buried in Google searches. I’m worried about Silicon Valley’s influence in the media.

Such critiques led interviewees to desire that Substack take more responsibility for the content produced and promoted on the platform. To them, it functioned like a publisher that curates and distributes content, rather than as a neutral digital tool. 

Another collection of young journalists who experimented on the platform but since moved their writing to an independent site critiqued Substack’s policies:

Substack could have been a great place for experimentation that breaks away from the bigoted speech that’s dominated American newspapers during pivotal moments of social transformation (see how newspapers framed integration, interracial marriage, and gay marriage). Instead, it’s more of the same. Substack isn’t the future of media. It’s just a content management system run by a company that aims to prioritize profit over people’s lives.

From this perspective, rather than representing a hopeful or useful media model, Substack represents the perpetuation of the faults of traditional and institutional media. Thus, this subset of journalists views newsletter writing as an unsustainable pursuit and problematic media model. 

A veteran international reporter sums up this view with his critique of the current media ecosystem, in which smaller publications and opportunities struggle to exist, as well as Substack’s role within it:

If you consolidate a business into big players and then that sucks up all the talent, then everything else becomes nothing more than an audition. So your book is an audition, and your big article somewhere is an audition, and your leadership of a midsized manager’s room is an audition, and your Substack is certainly an audition. The only place you’re going to get quality editing, good access, some imprimatur that matters under a living wage, is going to be, like, three places. That doesn’t feel sustainable to me. I’m suspicious of the Substack model, because it seems to be based on the idea of a lifeboat more than on the idea of an actual legitimate setting.

These journalists feel frustrated by a lack of opportunities in institutional media and hopeless about the promise of independent digital tools. Such pessimism leads them to express distance from their journalistic identity. As the international reporter continues: “My current job is to pay my mortgage and feed my kid in an industry that has done its best to die over the past decade.”

This report presents a case study of the digital newsletter platform Substack to explore how journalists use and incorporate it into their careers and how it relates to the broader media environment. Rather than falling prey to technological determinism, willful optimism, or dispiriting pessimism about the role of technology in the future of news, the report highlights some of the ways in which digital technologies can be used and understood. 

In particular, I identify differences between journalists who use Substack to (i) complement their work for other publications and outlets, (ii) create an alternative media environment, and (iii) keep them connected to their professional field when they lack other opportunities and resources. 

Each journalist’s use of Substack is associated with specific career goals, strategies of content production, and conceptions of journalistic identity. By focusing on the practices, intentions, and understandings of digital newsletters expressed by the journalists themselves, the report highlights how structures of news work may influence journalistic careers, as well as how journalists shape the role, use, and understanding of digital tools. 

My findings point to an increase in the range of methods and logics journalists rely on to produce information as they access expanded resources to build their careers. As communication technologies continue to evolve, journalists confront ever more opportunities and tools to shape their work and careers. We see journalists experimenting not only with newsletters but with media such as podcasting and texting, and structures such as publishing work as a collective and hosting live events. Such opportunities expand the types of work journalists produce, incorporating new skills, forms of expertise, audience relationships, and methods of reporting. At the same time, these experimentations present themselves as public, facing toward an audience as journalists seek to publicize and monetize their work and brands. As journalistic careers evolve to include a wider variety of styles, tools, and methods, the opportunities also grow for audiences to access diverse content.

While these trends expand the modes of and voices able to contribute to public conversations, they also contribute to phenomena such as the crises of expertise, ontological insecurity, and post-truth politics without common norms that structure the flow, distribution, and norms of producing and accessing news and information. Readers increasingly access a high-choice media environment via newspapers, websites, tweets, podcasts, and newsletters, among others. Such a buffet of content can overwhelm and segment media consumers, limiting the amount of shared content and perspectives available to audiences. 19 Benkler, Yochai, Rob Faris, and Hal Roberts. Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Boczkowski, Pablo J. “Abundance.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and Richard Fletcher. “Democratic Creative Destruction? The Effect of a Changing Media Landscape on Democracy.” In Social Media and Democracy, edited by Nathaniel Persily and Joshua A. Tucker, 1st ed., 139–62. Cambridge University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108890960.008. Prior, Markus. Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. While structures such as newsletters can allow journalists to capitalize on niche audiences and produce content through a greater variety of means and media, these trends also present challenges for creating shared understandings of facts and narratives—one of the traditional functions of journalism as a pillar of civil society. It raises the question of the relationship between an increase in media content and the health and robustness of the media environment. Thus, newsletters and digital platforms offer new media opportunities, as well as challenge some of the core functions of news work. 

Furthermore, we see the interrelationships and dependencies between digital technologies and traditional media institutions. While digital tools are often touted as offering independence, the ways in which alternative technologies affect structures of power and privilege within the media remain limited. 

Interviewees employed by traditional media institutions often sought to uphold objective norms and climb traditional career hierarchies. In contrast, interviewees more focused on digital platforms embraced the freedom to create content on their own timelines, based on their own inclinations, and incorporating their own perspectives. In this way, they articulated alternative goals of expressing themselves, garnering attention online, building community, and connecting directly with their audiences. 

These styles and goals contrast with the more authoritative voice of professionalism backed up by journalistic norms and traditionally displayed in dominant media publications. However, journalists working on digital platforms must confront limits to their independence, counternormative trends, and creation of alternative media spaces. Even when working independently on digital platforms, journalists rely on dominant professional outlets and publications to publicize their work, gain visibility, and source content. 

The computational portion of this report showed that newsletter writers most often link their work to existing dominant outlets. This creates webs of media production that include both institutional and independent forms of news work centered on select core publications, themes, and figures. Furthermore, within that web, digital platforms themselves become central players as their tools, algorithms, and support shape the types of content produced and made visible. Thus, the report highlights how an expanded media environment that includes an array of journalistic opportunities presents both new potentials and pitfalls for empowering journalists and supporting their careers. 

In conclusion, I highlight several potential avenues for future research.

Journalistic careers: How are journalists using other digital tools? How do these opportunities exacerbate or mitigate employment precarity? How sustainable is journalistic work on digital platforms, and newsletter writing in particular? What types of opportunities and careers do journalists hope for that can be supported by new technological tools? 

Political economy of news work: How do subscriber-based funding models of news work change the incentives for journalistic production? What role do technology companies play in supporting the production and distribution of journalism? How should these platforms and companies be regulated and/or held accountable for worker livelihoods and the content produced using their tools?  

Audiences: What attracts readers to journalistic outlets, media, and writers? How do readers interpret journalistic writing distributed through various means? How do they relate to the readers of similar and/or different outlets and content? How do readers evaluate information from different sources and distributed on different platforms? How do these sources interact in ways that are complementary and/or contradictory in shaping audience views?

Challenges to professional norms: How are journalistic norms of objectivity, balance, and fairness being challenged by new opportunities for journalistic production? What alternative norms are journalists using as an epistemological basis for their work? How do these norms differ across platforms, publications, and individuals? How are institutional newsrooms reacting to and incorporating new norms of information production? 

The media industry will continue to evolve, and journalists will continue to experiment with new tools, ideas, and career paths. While each development brings challenges, unanticipated impacts, and controversies, the journalists in our study remain committed to their work. Some even find hope within the complexity and failure of these supposed media solutions. As one reporter remarks: “It’s good a lot of people are experimenting… the industry is now being fully shaken up.”

Appendix A: Interview Demographics

Table 1: Respondent Demographic Characteristics. *Includes Latinx, East Asian, South Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, North African, and mixed-race respondents

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Digital News Publications

Case studies in collaborative local journalism.

Executive Summary

In this report, we analyse the potential for collaborative journalism initiatives to address the challenges facing local news. Although collaboration has been examined in the context of national and international partnerships, often among larger news organisations, few studies investigate these efforts at the local level, particularly in Europe. As local media around the world continue to face declining revenues and shrinking newsroom staffs, collaborative approaches may offer a vehicle for producing high-quality accountability journalism at the local level.

This report is based on more than 30 interviews with key figures in high-profile collaborative journalism experiments in three different countries, including journalists as well as senior management, community organisers, data analysts, technical experts, and others. The three primary cases featured are the Bureau Local (UK), ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ (Italy), and Lännen Media (Finland). We also interviewed the director of CORRECTIV.Lokal, an initiative in Germany seeking to replicate the work of the Bureau Local.

These cases reflect three distinct models of collaboration: (1) a permanent network of journalists and non-journalists engaged in topic-driven reporting projects (the Bureau Local); (2) legacy and start-up news organisations working together on a single extended investigation (‘L’Italia Delle Slot’); and (3) regional news organisations sharing content through a collaborative newsroom (Lännen Media).

These initiatives involve both similar and divergent approaches to network building, project development, and content distribution. Two of the collaborations focus on publishing high-impact stories simultaneously across multiple outlets; the Bureau Local pursues multiple projects each year, while ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ is a time-limited project focused on one subject. The third collaboration, Lännen Media, includes journalists working in newsrooms around Finland to produce national and international reporting shared among 12 member newspapers.

We find that these very different initiatives feature many common elements that offer potential lessons for other local newsrooms:

• Each collaboration is designed to facilitate concrete forms of resource sharing – of both human and technical resources – while minimising potential competitive friction among the individuals and organisations involved.
• All three collaborations feature diverse and dispersed networks, and are dedicated to creating connections, both virtually and in person, to allow for knowledge-sharing, skills enhancement, and mentorship. They also aim to engage participants as equal partners in editorial processes.
• Participants suggest that collaborative approaches have allowed them to report on topics they would not typically cover as well as engage with familiar subjects in more comprehensive ways. Many said they have also learned how to better incorporate data and multimedia elements into their reporting.
• Two of the collaborations embrace strategies that allow them to connect with communities to tell their stories. The Bureau Local and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ have worked to build partnerships with individuals and organisations affected by the issues they cover, while Lännen Media journalists aim for coverage with broad appeal that doesn’t favour particular localities.
• Despite their short tenures, these efforts have shown evidence of impact on a variety of political, social, and economic issues, due in part to distribution strategies in which national and local content is released simultaneously across an array of platforms.

We also find that these collaborations face distinct challenges. In particular, participants cited the need to develop a shared mission and goals, unite newsrooms with different ownership structures and funding models, teach local journalists how to incorporate data into their reporting, adapt their communication and management structures to reflect the needs of participants, and find ways to chart and measure the implications of their work.

People involved in these initiatives are hesitant to suggest that they offer the definitive solution to the problems facing local news, and they do not aim to replace the news industry in the cities and towns where they operate. They also expressed uncertainty about the sustainability of their efforts. Nevertheless, these projects highlight the potential of collaboration for making the most of limited resources, and show the willingness of journalists and other community-level actors to embrace experimental approaches fostering journalism that makes a difference in people’s lives.

1. Introduction

Over the last decade, news organisations have increasingly experimented with collaborative approaches as a way to extend their resources and maximise the reach and influence of their reporting. This trend has been driven by several factors, ranging from economic challenges to access to large data sets and the need to work across borders to investigate global or regional issues (Sambrook 2017). The most visible examples are international projects uniting hundreds of journalists and dozens of news organisations, such as the Panama Papers, which depended on a remarkable culture of mutual trust (McGregor et al. 2017) and has prompted official action in scores of countries around the world (Graves & Shabbir 2019).

Notable collaborations have also emerged between national and local organisations, such as ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in the US, and among local news outlets, such as Resolve Philadelphia’s partnership between newspapers, radio, TV, digital-born outlets, and others (Knight Foundation 2018; Kramer 2017). However, despite signs that collaboration can yield ‘exponential benefits’ at the local level (Stonbely 2017), these efforts have received less attention than high-profile national and international collaborations – and are particularly under-studied in the European context.

This report uses a strategic sample of three case studies in three European countries to examine the benefits, challenges, and potential of collaborative approaches for producing high-quality local journalism. We define collaboration as initiatives or projects through which journalists from different news organisations work with one another and with other actors – such as technologists, data scientists, academics, and community members – to report, produce, and distribute news. We chose cases led by editors and journalists, rather than citizens or other non-journalists, and that were designed specifically to address challenges facing local journalism in the countries where they emerged. We also focused on collaborations incorporating both print and digital distribution strategies.

The research is based on 31 interviews conducted between December 2018 and February 2019 with directors, editors-in-chief, managing editors, newsroom and freelance reporters, community organisers, data analysts, funders, and start-up founders working with collaborations. The cases included in the report are the Bureau Local in the UK, ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ in Italy, and L ä nnen Media in Finland. We also interviewed the director of CORRECTIV.Lokal, an initiative in Germany seeking to replicate the work of the Bureau Local.

Local news has been especially hard hit by the economic crisis in journalism. In many countries, once-dominant local newspapers face a structural transformation as their print products decline and digital revenues fail to make up for the losses (Nielsen 2015). Additionally, management strategies focused on cutting costs and maximising profits for local newspapers have raised concerns over declining quality, a lack of critical or investigative journalism, and a loss of connection with local communities (Franklin 2006). Local media also tend to have fewer resources to invest in new digital strategies for content, audience engagement, and commercial efforts than their national and international counterparts (Ali et al. 2018; Hess and Waller 2017; Jenkins and Nielsen 2018).

Meanwhile, collaboration across newsrooms has become an increasingly common alternative for resource-challenged news outlets. A report by the Center for Cooperative Media, chronicling 44 collaborative projects mostly in the US, found that these initiatives vary in their level of integration, commitment, and duration, but they all seek to ‘produce content that is greater than what any individual journalist, newsroom, or organisation could produce on its own’ (Stonbely 2017, 14). Participants in US-based collaborative efforts have cited other benefits, including fostering ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity; gaining expertise to cover complex stories; expanding the reach of content; offering access to topics, geographic areas, and sources not ordinarily covered; providing collective leverage; and spurring public discussions about key issues (Bryant 2017).

At the local level, editors, reporters, and others associated with small-market newspapers in the US have suggested that coalitions, associations, and partnerships are increasingly important, such as for negotiating with digital platforms, including Google and Facebook, and sharing risks and responsibilities across outlets (Ali et al. 2018). Hess and Waller (2017) contrast collaborative approaches with the centralisation and dispersion of local content production that has occurred across much of the local media ecosystem; rather, a collective strategy ‘moves the emphasis from profit to preservation’ (p. 197).

Collaborations often revolve around data-driven reporting, helping transfer a highly valued and still largely specialised skill from larger, mainly urban newsrooms to local and hyperlocal journalists (Ausserhofer et al. 2017; Stalph and Borges-Rey 2018). These initiatives also connect local journalists with data experts (analysts, developers, graphic designers, academics) as well as specialists in other topic areas (NGOs, activists, community members).

Although potential advantages of collaboration are well-documented, little research exists about the ways that local news organisations have experimented with collaborative journalism, or about the particular challenges they face and the approaches they use to build and manage collaborations that unite participants with differing backgrounds, experience, and expertise.

Research Approach

To begin to answer these questions, this report offers a close examination of three case studies representing very distinct models of collaboration: ( 1) collaboration among a network of journalists and non-journalists engaging in topic-driven reporting projects (the Bureau Local); (2) collaboration among legacy and start-up news organisations on a single topic (‘L’Italia Delle Slot’); and (3) collaboration among regional news organisations through shared content distribution (L ä nnen Media).

We chose these initiatives to reflect the wider diversity of collaborative efforts in Europe; each addresses different challenges and involves different types of professional groups and organisations. The cases also represent multiple media systems (Hallin and Mancini 2004) encompassing very different media markets (see Table 1) and landscapes for local news. For example, while national media companies and brands dominate the UK news environment (Nielsen 2015), Finland is distinguished by regional titles and high levels of ownership concentration (Hujanen 2008) and Italy’s newspaper market is led by two primary publishing groups owning national and local titles (Newman et al. 2018).

Table 1. Media markets for countries covered

Source: Adapted from Cornia et al. (2016: 13). Data: Internet World Stats (2019) for population (2018 estimate) and internet penetration in Dec. 2017, www.internetworldstats.com; Newman et al. (2018) and additional analysis on the basis of data from digitalnewsreport.org for printed newspaper use, websites/apps of newspapers use, and social media use (Q4. You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is your MAIN source of news?); WAN-IFRA (2018) for size of the 2017 national advertising market (total advertising expenditure in € millions, exchange rates £1/€1.13, 31 Dec. 2017), distribution of that expenditure across media, and changes in internet and newspaper advertising expenditures 2013–17, www.wptdatabase.org/ .

We interviewed representatives from multiple levels of the collaborations, including those in leadership positions, those involved with the funding and community-development aspects of the projects, and members of the reporting teams and networks. Interview questions addressed the benefits and challenges of collaboration for local media, how the collaborative project was developed, editorial processes, the nature of the content produced, how audiences receive the content, commercial strategies, how participants see the impact and future of their initiatives, and how the collaborations address deficits in local news in each of the countries.

The 31 interviews conducted for this research took place in person (13) or remotely by phone or Skype (18). (See the complete list of interviewees at the end of the report ; one interviewee wished to remain anonymous.) The interviews were all conducted in English. The interview data were triangulated by analysing news output produced through the collaborations, including articles, data visualisations, interactive features, videos, and other multimedia content. We also examined tools used to connect participants, such as Slack channels and social media accounts, and organisational documents, including website content, press releases, and public presentations.

This report is structured as follows. First, we assess the background and development of each of the collaborative models, including how they define ‘collaboration’ and the challenges in the local-news environments that gave rise to their initiatives. We then examine the structure and editorial routines at work in the collaborations, including their approaches to building their networks and developing and distributing their editorial work. Next, we consider how participants in the collaborations view their relationships with the communities they cover and their perceived impact. Finally, we examine the benefits and challenges they have faced and how these considerations compare across countries.

2. Three Models for Collaboration

Various kinds of formal and informal collaboration have long been present in journalism, from wire services to pool reporting. However, economic challenges and technological change have led many news organisations, particularly smaller, more specialised ones, to openly embrace the potential of collaboration for enhancing the impact and emphasising the value of their work (Graves and Konieczna 2015).

Collaborative initiatives share some key characteristics, such as an emphasis on maximising resources, sharing expertise, producing high-quality content, and enhancing the reach of the reporting, but they also differ in important ways, particularly in terms of the types of actors and outlets participating, the editorial mission or focus of the content, the planned longevity of the project or initiative, and the level of integration of the outlets involved (Stonbely 2017).

This chapter begins by focusing on how respondents working with our three case examples defined collaboration in the context of their own projects. The second part describes the origins and development of each of the collaborative initiatives.

Table 2. Collaborations covered

Sources: Interviewees; Bureau Local website, www.thebureauinvestigates.com/local

Defining Collaboration

Important similarities and differences among the cases were evident in the ways respondents defined ‘collaboration’. They identified common attributes, including sharing resources, identifying reciprocal benefits, drawing together diverse participants, using a common method, and developing and agreeing upon a shared mission and goals.

The first and most important theme respondents emphasised was the value of collaboration for local news organisations, which already tend to have fewer resources to invest in producing high-quality journalism in the digital environment than national and international organisations.

For example, Kyösti Karvonen, Editor-in-Chief of Kaleva , a regional newspaper based in Oulu, Finland, that is part of L ä nnen Media, said the continuing economic challenges affecting local newspapers in Finland meant regional newspapers needed to seek out opportunities to enhance efficiency and reduce costs while not sacrificing the quality of their reporting. As a result, ‘joining forces’, as he described, with other media houses in content areas in which they do not directly compete presented a viable solution.

Emma Pearson, News Editor at the Lancashire Post in the UK and a Bureau Local network member, said collaboration is defined by the ability of news organisations to share resources in pursuit of producing high-quality journalism in response to dramatic cuts and shrinking capacity.

Collaboration really, for me, is about people getting together and pooling the small amount of resources they do have and using it efficiently to do stuff that’s still good.

Second, respondents emphasised that collaboration provides access to new ideas, expertise, skills, and tools that may not exist in their newsrooms.

Raffaele Mastrolonardo, founder of Effecinque, a partner in the ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ investigation, said collaboration is defined by complex projects requiring different skillsets and perspectives, which should involve different types of journalism organisations.

Right now, the landscape is pretty diversified, meaning there are traditional media, there are freelancers, and there are small organisations like Effecinque. Or there are small groups of innovators within traditional media. … So when I think about collaboration in journalistic terms, I think about all these different figures pulling together on a single project.

Natalie Bloomer, a freelance journalist based in Northampton in the UK who has worked on multiple Bureau Local investigations, said collaboration allows news organisations to share information, such as data, sources, and other advice to aid reporting.

We’re looking into the same issues already, so it makes sense to join forces and share the information that we’ve each found. Sometimes it can be an issue of resources, so one organisation might have greater resources to look into a particular area and another might have some other skill or knowledge that can bring something else to the article. The key thing is the sharing of information, really.

Megan Lucero, Director of the Bureau Local, sees collaboration as an important community-led reporting tool. The Bureau Local welcomes those with diverse backgrounds and abilities to come together to tell stories – on a variety of predetermined themes – that might otherwise go unreported.

We bring people together who represent different locations, different skillsets, different knowledge, different expertise, with the common goal of investigating stories that are of interest. Telling stories that matter to communities, digging into things that aren’t being told, holding local and national power to account, solving problems that journalists need to face. That’s why our community comes together and collaborates.

Third, collaboration is defined by the editorial practices, processes, and philosophies of the participants, who share similar understandings of how they should approach their reporting and the impact they hope it will have. Like Lucero’s ‘common goal’, other respondents referred to their collaborations as having a ‘shared outcome’ or ‘mutually agreed end’.

For Kathryn Geels, Director of the European Journalism Centre’s Engaged Journalism Accelerator, a Bureau Local funder, collaboration can include news organisations working with one another, with non-journalists and non-news organisations, and with their communities. She said local news organisations have recognised that, to remain sustainable, they must be willing to take risks and try different strategies for reporting, considering a ‘whole ecosystem approach’ rather than emphasising competition. She said this philosophy is evident in initiatives like the BBC’s Local Democracy Reporter 1 programme and Google’s Digital News Initiative, in which organisations that could be seen as competitors have become partners.

Considering these responses as a whole, we suggest that local news collaboration can be defined as journalists from different news organisations coming together in a structured way to maximise resources, benefit from the abilities and perspectives of diverse participants, and pursue a common goal, particularly tied to producing high-quality journalism.

Three Approaches to Collaboration

The collaborations in this report seek to address needs specific to their countries as well as those affecting the local-news landscape in general. These collaborations reflect three distinctive approaches (see Table 2) that range from a single-subject investigation to a joint newsroom staffed and funded by different regional newspapers.

Reflecting these approaches, the collaborations are structured differently in terms of their editorial philosophy, management style, distribution strategy, and funding model. In this section, we discuss how each of the collaborations was developed and these key facets of its work.

The Bureau Local

The Bureau Local is a collaborative network, based in London but with members around the UK, that specialises in large-scale, data-driven investigations that can be adapted locally by journalists in different parts of the country. Typically this means producing a large national data set and working with reporters to localise information to their area, by providing reporting guides and other resources to help them cover stories that might otherwise be beyond their reach.

The initiative started in 2017 as a programme of the Bureau for Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), which was founded in 2010 and describes itself as ‘an independent, not-for-profit organisation that holds power to account’, according to its website. TBIJ Editor Rachel Oldroyd recognised that the business model for local news was collapsing, with newspapers around the UK downsizing and in some cases closing, creating the potential for a ‘democratic deficit’ in which many citizens would not have access to the information they need to actively engage in their communities. She sought funding for a potential solution to the decline, eventually securing a €662,000  grant from the Google Digital News Initiative.

Oldroyd recruited Megan Lucero, formerly a data editor at The Times and Sunday Times in London, to serve as the Bureau Local’s director and develop its vision. Lucero and her team visited the US to learn about other organisations focused on collaboration around data journalism, such as ProPublica, and conducted a ‘listening exercise’ through which they visited newsrooms around the UK to gauge local journalists’ interest.

In May 2017, although they had not yet announced their first project, the Bureau Local team was forced into action when Prime Minister Theresa May called for a snap election on 8 June. They launched a series of investigations and, over the next six weeks, created a Slack channel for network members, worked with statisticians to build databases, partnered with universities to hold ‘hack days’ in five different cities, and developed data-reporting toolkits. Lucero said this first reporting experience, which resulted in 150 local articles, set the tone for the investigations to come.

That sort of set the foundation for a lot of things, which is that it showed the power of bringing people together. It showed the power of local ideas and how that can be applied for a national scale. It showed the hunger but lack of information available for people. … The importance of reporting on something before it happens rather than after it happens to empower people to act on it is a really important facet for local [news].

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’

‘ L’Italia Delle Slot’ is the title of a two-year investigation into the rise of gambling in Italy, produced by a partnership between two journalism start-ups, Effecinque and Dataninja, and the GEDI Group, which publishes La Repubblica , the country’s largest newspaper, and 13 local newspapers. The two start-ups worked specifically with the Visual Lab, GEDI’s hub for creating visual and interactive digital content.

The inspiration for ‘ L’Italia Delle Slot ’ came in 2013. R affaele Mastrolonardo, founder of Effecinque, which focuses on developing innovative approaches to online journalism, said Italy was riddled with slot machines – in bars, tobacco shops, restaurants – and that gambling revenues had been rising since 2004. He set out to find data about the prevalence of slot machines around the country and how they had affected the economy. No data were available, so he filed a request with the government to access relevant public records. The request was denied.

Mastrolonardo then partnered with Alessio Cimarelli, a data scientist and co-founder of Dataninja, a grassroots network focused on data journalism; they discovered that the government maintained an online database of every business in the country, with associated addresses, authorised to house a slot machine. The data set was too large to download manually, so they scraped it. They then compared the numbers with data (shared from Italy’s national research centre) about the prevalence of gambling addiction in different regions of Italy and used population data to determine the number of businesses authorised to house slot machines per resident. This resulted in per-capita rankings of slot-machine prevalence.

Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli wanted to connect with a news organisation to share their findings, eventually partnering with Wired Italia , which created interactive maps and graphics. They also recognised the value their data might hold for local outlets and ran regional analyses of the relationships between the presence of mini casinos (a sub-category of businesses authorised to house more lucrative types of slot machines) and the amount of income people spend on gambling. They approached Il Secolo XIX  newspaper in Genoa, which agreed to report on the findings. In 2014, editors from Il Tirreno , the regional newspaper in Tuscany, requested their own version of the investigation.

In 2016, the Freedom of Information Act in Italy was passed. Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli filed another request for the government’s gambling data in 2017 and were successful, receiving records outlining the number of slot machines for the nearly 8,000 municipalities in Italy and how much people spent on them, the first time such data were made available to the public. The pair approached the GEDI Group about collaborating to produce a multimedia news feature. They expressed interest, and Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli determined per-capita slot-machine rates and spending for villages, cities, and municipalities across Italy. They also prepared localised reports to share with the GEDI Group’s local newspapers, and partnered with the University of Pisa to compare slot-machine prevalence with gambling addiction rates among young people.

Marianna Bruschi, who now heads the Visual Lab, said all of the GEDI Group’s local newspapers had covered gambling, but the partnership with Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli offered valuable data and context.

You can write about this game and gambling addiction, but if you don’t have a data set that proves to you, ‘Yes, we have a problem in our city’, it’s not the same. I think that one of the great things about ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ is that not only did our 13 local newspapers use this project, but in the first week we found on the web almost 50 articles written by very, very small titles that used this data set. So I think this is a great thing.

The first investigation was such a success that the Visual Lab partnered with Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli for a second edition, which was published in December 2018. ‘L’Italia Delle Slot 2’ expanded the data to include not only slot machines but all types of legal gaming around Italy. It also featured additional interactive and multimedia elements as well as another collection of reports from local journalists at GEDI newspapers.

L ä nnen Media

Founded in 2014, L ä nnen Media is a joint newsroom serving 12 regional newspapers that represent eight different media companies from across western and northern Finland. L ä nnen Media journalists produce national and international news, background articles on current events, weekend features, theme pages (health, travel, cars, family, etc.), and commentary and analysis for both print and online distribution by any member newspaper.

Collaboration between regional newspapers has a ‘long tradition’ in Finland, said Veijo Hyvönen, Managing Editor of Turun Sanomat in Turku. In 2013, editors with the regional newspapers recognised that sections of their print newspapers and portions of their web content could be produced collaboratively so they could focus on creating local content, said Matti Posio, L ä nnen Media Editor-in-Chief.

The co-operation was there, but it was kind of messy and kind of random, and then there would always be some sort of quarrel about which region you have to take into account more. We wanted to make something that would serve everybody equally.

The country’s biggest regional newspapers – Kaleva in Oulu, Aamulehti in Tampere, and Turun Sanomat – and some smaller newspapers decided to create a more sustainable option. Kyösti Karvonen, Editor-in-Chief of Kaleva , said the companies faced similar economic challenges, and L ä nnen Media presented a way to solve their problems.

Those years, we had a downturn and also the media disruption was at full speed, so we had to cut costs, and also, of course, we wanted to improve our content and our journalism for our readers.

Now, with a staff of four editors and and almost 40 journalists working in newsrooms around the country, including a Helsinki-based newsroom of ten journalists, L ä nnen Media represents one of the country’s largest and most well-developed news-coordination efforts. Participating news organisations disperse costs by paying only the journalists based in their newsrooms, as well as a service fee for Lännen Media content, and the costs are distributed based on the size of the outlet.

Posio said Finland does not have a national newspaper covering the whole country, so regional newspapers serve vital roles, although the rise of digital news is complicating this structure because everyone ‘competes at the same level’. As a result, member newspapers are implementing different types of paywalls, and Lännen Media leaders are working to determine which content readers will pay for across the outlets.

CORRECTIV.Lokal

The Bureau Local inspired a similar initiative based in Germany that works with local journalists on in-depth reporting projects with national significance and local relevance. A project of the non-profit investigative reporting organisation CORRECTIV, CORRECTIV.Lokal aims to share the organisation’s expertise in investigative reporting and data journalism, as well as resources it has developed, such as a crowd-sourcing tool called Crowd Newsroom, for free with local newsrooms. As Director Justus von Daniels described:

We try to offer all these kind of journalistic resources, and that’s why we collaborate with the local level. … We can deliver some resources that they don’t have because they lack the time and sometimes, of course, they lack resources. But what they have, what we don’t have, is the experience on the ground. They are the local reporters. They know the place where they live. They know the people.

Von Daniels said that before launching CORRECTIV.Lokal, he focused on sharing stories his organisation had reported with local newsrooms and asking them to publish the work. He said that, although editors were open to receiving the content, they were concerned that the stories did not reflect their writing style or did not focus on their town.

Instead, CORRECTIV.Lokal allows von Daniels and other CORRECTIV staff to work alongside local newsrooms as partners on large-scale investigations. In February 2018, they began with a series aiming to make housing markets more transparent, beginning with ‘Who Owns Hamburg?’ (see Figure 1) and moving to five other cities around the country.

Working with the daily newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt , they launched a campaign to raise a debate in the city about the housing market, including setting up a ‘mobile office’ to meet with citizens, hosting weekly debates, creating a newsletter, and launching a Crowd Newsroom to collect structured data on ownership and tips from the public. Von Daniels said the initiative reaped other benefits as well.

Figure 1. CORRECTIV.Lokal’s ‘Who Owns Hamburg?’ investigation, published in November 2018

For us, a fairly small organisation, we got visibility in the city which we wouldn’t have ever had, and for a non-profit organisation … it’s key that people get to know you because we actually want to get people to fund us, to support us on an idea level but also on a financial level. So, people in Hamburg could learn or could see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, they can trust this kind of journalism — that was really good. (Justus von Daniels)

CORRECTIV.Lokal moved from Hamburg to Berlin and Düsseldorf to conduct similar investigations. From these larger partners, they are also launching three new collaborations with local newspapers in smaller cities (80,000–120,000 residents) in spring 2019.

Von Daniels said this focus on training and working with local newsrooms and local citizens serves two purposes. First, it allows journalists to show that ‘Journalism is not magic, and you can help us, you can be part of it.’ Second, local journalists need to remind readers why they should subscribe to their local newspaper and follow its reporting.

I think that’s why this investigative stuff is so important, saying, ‘We really care about the problems that are here; we are trying to hold power accountable in our region.’ … I think you get more trust or people feel more affiliated to journalism if they see that journalists care.

3. How Collaborations Work

The collaborations explored here were formed to address different needs in their countries and to achieve particular editorial aims. Although they all endeavour to produce or enable the production of meaningful local news, they rely on different types of management, editorial, and distribution strategies to develop and share this content with audiences.

Different models for collaboration have been identified in other contexts, such as in the US, where researchers outlined six approaches – temporary and separate, temporary and co-creating, temporary and integrated, ongoing and separate, ongoing and co-creating, and ongoing and integrated (Stonbely 2017). These models suggest different levels of commitment and integration, with an overall desire to create high-quality content.

Other elements are key to ensuring that collaborations operate successfully, including the need to build trust and develop clear structures and guidelines; involve neutral partners in editorial co-ordination, communication, and problem-solving; use technology strategically; establish a clear purpose and metrics for success; and reinforce the value of producing investigative journalism (Sambrook 2017).

In developing their collaborations, the Bureau Local, the ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ team, and L ä nnen Media relied on specific strategies. This chapter focuses on the operational practices for the collaborations, including how they recruited partners and built their networks, their approaches to editorial project development, and their methods of content distribution.

Building a Network

The success of the collaborations, according to respondents, depends not only on creating high-quality journalism but also on recruiting dedicated partners with shared goals. The collaborations studied for this report feature networks of varying sizes and include participants ranging from journalists in local newsrooms to freelancers, data scientists, academics, technologists, and founders of news-based start-ups.

The leaders of the collaborations also use different techniques for recruiting, communicating with, managing, and maintaining the individuals involved with their work, who, in all cases, are dispersed around a large geographic area. They rely on both top-down and bottom-up structures, remaining open to refining their processes to adapt to the needs of participants.

The Bureau Local: A Transparent Approach to Organising

The Bureau Local launched in March 2017 with the aim to ‘build a network of regional reporters and tech experts across the country to investigate large-scale datasets and uncover local public interest stories’, according to a blog post on its website. They also aimed to maintain a transparent approach to organising in which methods and strategies could change depending on the needs and interests of the network.

As noted, the Bureau Local embarked on its first project just two months later – a multi-pronged investigation into the UK snap elections, including a look at targeted political advertising (‘dark ads’) on social media, the political power of new voters, the level of reporter access to party leaders, and the use of crowdfunding for political campaigns. To engage interested journalists in the project, the Bureau Local team launched a Slack channel. By the June election, the network had grown to more than 350 local journalists, bloggers, civic tech workers, and others from 84 cities around the country, according to a Bureau Local blog post.

Since the election investigation, the Bureau Local has overseen several other projects, including covering domestic violence provision, racial profiling at immigration checks, homeless deaths, and local council spending pressures. Each investigation is announced to the network via social media, emails, and the Slack channel. Participants receive the tools they need to get involved, including access to data, ‘reporting recipes’ (described as ‘how-to guides for using our data and developing the story’), and code for analysing and visualising data.

The Bureau Local also hosts ‘hack days’ during which network members learn how to gather, organise, and analyse large data sets. The first hack days, which focused on voter power, were held simultaneously in five cities around the UK and featured data from the UK census, Labour Force Surveys, the British Election Study, and past votes and registration numbers (Ciobanu 2017).

Birmingham City University’s Paul Bradshaw helped organise the hack days. He said these events should address topics that have broad implications for society – ‘Let’s shine the light on something good as well as the bad, a problem that needs solving’ – and include a diversity of participants, such as local journalists, developers, open-data advocates, people from the non-profit sector, politicians, and others.

The Bureau Local has also begun hosting one-hour ‘open newsrooms’ on the Slack channel (see Figure 2). Rachel Hamada, one of the Bureau’s community organisers, said the open newsrooms focus on a particular topic but also include opportunities to highlight recent work by network members and ‘do a bit of troubleshooting together’. Open newsrooms have explored how to glean additional information from a postcode or address, challenges associated with court reporting, and how to effectively involve communities in journalistic work.

Figure 2. The 14 March 2019 Bureau Local open newsroom, hosted on Slack, focused on sharing questions and advice about FOI requests, specifically in the context of local council investigations

During the open newsroom focused on postcodes, Bradshaw and Anna Powell-Smith, a developer and data analyst, assisted journalists trying to identify the kinds of properties on a list of addresses sold by local councils. Powell-Smith said the open-newsroom approach differs from her previous work on data-driven projects, in which journalists tended to be more protective and less open about their work.

It’s kind of unusual because the newsrooms I’ve worked with before would find it very difficult to do an approach like that where they FOI’d every council, every local authority, so 350 local authorities, and they got all these data sets back, and I think probably a newspaper was finding that really hard to work with because they’d have 350 different data sets in different data formats, like some are incomplete, some are really messy. So probably a normal newspaper wouldn’t have the capacity to do that kind of project except for maybe The New York Times or something. … The Bureau Local has this unusual newsroom model where they can get local people working on it and spotting stuff.

Although not all network members regularly use the Slack channel, multiple respondents said it offers a useful resource to receive advice about using data, finding and working with sources, acquiring public documents, and other topics. Emma Pearson, News Editor with the Lancashire Post , who has worked on projects such as the domestic violence investigation, said:

It’s been good for sharing ideas, and even stuff that we’ve sort of been talking about, but it hasn’t worked out for various reasons – there is still stuff that you can take away from that. … Practical questions about the Bureau, which they are always very helpful and always very keen on answering, but it’s also quite a good resource for ideas and chatting to other journalists. It’s nice to see outside of your own bubble sometimes.

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’: ‘A Very Collaborative Work Process’

The ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project began when Raffaele Mastrolonardo and Alessio Cimarelli approached the GEDI Group’s Visual Lab about co-operating on a project focused on the prevalence of slot machines in regions around Italy. Marianna Bruschi, Head of the Visual Lab, said the partners in the collaboration each had a different role to play, with Dataninja and also Effecinque providing and interpreting the data set, the Visual Lab determining how to visualise the data, and journalists in local newsrooms producing stories with community impact. They also worked with Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies) to provide context for the findings of the data analysis and develop a guide to the laws and games referenced in the project.

To aid the reporting process, which took two to three months, Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli created reports for each local newsroom, including data about their city as well as tables with data on the top 20 cities in their surrounding region and an interactive map. The reports served as a starting point for the local journalists, who could decide how to frame the story and what types of sources to interview, while the Visual Lab assisted with producing videos and other multimedia elements. Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli ensured that the data were presented clearly in online infographics and interactive features.

Mastrolonardo said he and Cimarelli engaged actively throughout the process, even participating in a press conference at the Italian Parliament to share the results with politicians, anti-gambling citizen associations, and representatives from the gambling industry.

It was a very collaborative work process. It was very satisfying. … The fact, for instance, that we were invited to the press conference and we were on the stage for the press conference – I mean, they did consider us as partners. We worked as their partners, not just people who were handling that work. … The original idea is ours, mine and Alessio’s basically, so they recognised that.

L ä nnen Media: ‘Partnering with our Rivals’

L ä nnen Media began with three regional newspapers and a few smaller titles, and grew to a network of 12 around the country (see Figure 3). The L ä nnen Media team includes about 40 reporters working across the 12 newsrooms – all have at least one reporter, with larger organisations housing up to six – including a team of ten working in a newsroom in Helsinki providing national and international news on politics, economics, courts, crime, and sports.

Figure 3. A map of participating newspapers in L ä nnen Media

Veijo Hyvönen, Managing Editor of Turun Sanomat , a regional newspaper based in Turku, said that because his newspaper and others in the region compete for the same readers, ‘the most promising partners are also our rivals’. So, L ä nnen Media newspapers have focused on co-operating through sharing national and international news, which results in more resources for them to focus on creating high-quality local and regional content. Hyvönen said:

I think it’s more important with a smaller newspaper because they are afraid that if we start to do too much co-operation that they will somehow lose the battle, so we let them do their work and we do ours.

Editors are also placed around the country and often travel for meetings. Because the L ä nnen Media reporting network is so widely dispersed, they use video conferences to stay connected. Each morning, L ä nnen Media’s four editors meet with the 40 reporters to discuss their planned stories for the day. They then meet with editors from the participating newspapers on the same video channel to update them on editorial plans and determine what L ä nnen Media content the newspapers will use. A content management system also allows L ä nnen Media editors, reporters, and newspapers to stay connected and follow the progress of current and planned reporting.

The reliance on video conferencing can also present challenges for L ä nnen Media reporters based in regional newsrooms. Ossi Rajala, a journalist based at Turun Sanomat who covers domestic and international news, said:

The video conference is OK, it works, but it’s not as good as being in the same room. In Helsinki, there are seven journalists there. Then it’s easier to talk about ideas and suggest improvements. Here, all who are sitting around me are working for Turun Sanomat, and I’m the only L ä nnen Media journalist there, so it’s a bit more difficult because they don’t know what I am doing and I don’t know what they are doing. It’s a bit more lonely to work here than in Helsinki.

Collaborating with journalists working in a range of newsroom environments also means that L ä nnen Media editors must work to understand and accommodate a range of organisational cultures, journalistic routines, and work styles. Päivi Ojanperä, a features reporter based at the Turun Sanomat , said:

It’s probably how you handle chaos. The methods differ: if you have a lot of material and maybe three stories that you are writing or planning at the same time, it’s not always so easy, but some people may have a very strict plan how to proceed and other people will say, I’ll do this now and maybe a little bit of the other story later today and so on.

Project Development

Each of the collaborations takes a distinctive approach to news production, depending on its structure. Different strategies are applied for areas including topic selection, frequency of publication, reporting methods, presentation style, and level of involvement from editors, reporters, data analysts, designers, and web developers.

The Bureau Local: If it’s Happening Here, is it Happening Elsewhere?

The Bureau Local’s investigations are typically developed by the central team, which shares data, reporting guides, and other resources – including cash grants – so network members can find local stories.

In 2017, for instance, the Bureau Local began a long-term project called ‘Dying Homeless’, which collaborated with local journalists, non-profit organisations, and grassroots groups to record the deaths of homeless individuals in the UK. After conducting an initial count, the central team asked the reporting network to investigate deaths in their areas and add their information to the national database. (They have counted the occurrence of 800 deaths since October 2017.)

Freelance journalists Samir Jeraj and Natalie Bloomer spent four months reporting on homeless deaths in Northampton. They also received a local reporting fund grant from the Bureau Local to assist with their work, which Jeraj said allowed them to spend several days in Northampton (Jeraj is based in London) to interview people living homeless, people working for outreach organisations, shelter employees, and others.

Before they began reporting, Bloomer said, she and Jeraj met with Bureau Local staff to discuss what data and information they had and what they still needed to gather, and they were assigned an editor to answer questions. Bloomer said of working with the editor:

It gave you the support that you would have if you were working for a publication rather than being freelance. So it was the best of both worlds; we had the freedom to look into a story that we really cared about, but we had the support and resources available that you would get from, say, working for a publication.

The reporting ultimately found that homeless people had been turned away from the local night shelter despite it having available spaces. It was published on the Bureau Local website and in the Northampton Chronicle & Echo , as well as being featured on BBC Radio Northampton.

As part of the same investigation, freelance journalist Emily Goddard and photographer Alex Sturrock spent four months reporting on teen homelessness in Milton Keynes, where she lives, which was also funded by a local reporting fund grant. Goddard said the grant was vital to giving her the time to build relationships and trust with her sources.

It was purely time, which is obviously so important, and it’s just very difficult to find it when you’re a freelancer and when you’re doing lots of small jobs that aren’t making a lot of money. You’re kind of always thinking about, ‘Oh, I need to be able to do more to make sure I’m making enough.’ And when I did that [grant], it just gave us the flexibility and freedom to be a lot more flexible.

In other cases, the Bureau Local takes a more ground-up approach. In 2018, the network began a long-term investigation into funding cuts affecting domestic violence refuges around the UK, after investigative journalist Maeve McClenaghan saw a news report about drastic cuts in one community, Sunderland.

We thought, if that’s happening there, is it happening elsewhere across the country? The hypothesis was, this is not a one-off case, we know that council funding is being decimated, is this happening elsewhere?

McClenaghan and Bureau Local intern Jasmine Andersson began talking with refuge managers, who were hesitant to speak publicly. So they created an online survey and invited local journalists to share it with sources in their communities to determine whether funding had been cut, learning that more than 1,000 women and children had been turned away in the previous six months because funds were cut or reallocated. They compiled these data into ‘reporting recipes’ for other network members.

Tom Bristow, Investigations Editor at Archant, a publisher of regional and local media, described the approach of the domestic violence investigation, in contrast to other Bureau Local projects:

That wasn’t a case of, ‘here’s the data, here’s the reporting recipe, have a look and see what you think for your area’. That was more like a, ‘we want to look at this, let’s see what people come back to us with‘. It was more one where we had to go out and get the data ourselves and then we all shared it, shared the interviews. That was more like a collaboration in terms of working on the story together from an early point.

McClenaghan said she was proud of the final result.

What was really gratifying was when these really beautiful, deep, nuanced reports came out across the country. … With something as sensitive as this, obviously you can’t just ring up your local refuge and say, ‘Find me a woman that will cry for me on the radio.’ But they had been talking to people for weeks, if not months, and they had the national context and what was happening in their local area.

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’: Turning Problems into Opportunities

When they were invited to participate in the first ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project, some journalists in GEDI’s local newsrooms, particularly smaller ones, were intimidated by using a large data set to investigate the rise of slot machines in Italy, Bruschi said, but working with a central newsroom allayed concerns.

The reaction is very different, because for a small newsroom, it can be a problem, so you have to help them to not consider this as a problem but an opportunity.

Paolo Cagnan, Deputy Editor-in-Chief for four GEDI newspapers in the Veneto region, said that once his newspaper received the data, as well as some infographics and other visualisations, he assigned a reporter to the project who would work with a small team to produce print and online content. The team created a long-form article addressing gambling in Europe, then in Italy, and then in the region, and conducted 20 interviews with people commenting on the findings of the analysis, including citizens, politicians, health providers, and representatives of civic organisations working on the issue.

Figure 4. The homepage for ‘L’Italia Delle Slot 2’, published on the GEDI Digital Lab website in December 2018

Anna Ghezzi, a reporter at La Provincia Pavese in Pavia, said that when she received the data for the first investigation, she found it clean and easy to use, and she worked to determine what stories to follow, focusing initially on the amount of money earned by the state from slot machines in each town, which she accompanied with personal stories from local people who used and owned the machines. She said she also compared the amount of money spent at every machine in her town versus smaller and larger cities.

In summer 2018, Bruschi contacted Mastrolonardo and Cimarelli about creating a second edition of ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’, based on a new Freedom of Information Act request covering all types of gambling (see Figure 4). The data specialists played a similar role in the second edition – cleaning, organising, and interpreting the data – but did not create local reports for the GEDI Group’s newspapers, as they now had the experience to conduct their own analyses. The journalists received a simplified data set with information about their region and top 20 cities, as well as a glossary with definitions for the different games. They had a shorter turn-around – two weeks – than with the first version. As Mastrolonardo described the process:

There were the inputs from us, which were mainly data and analysis, then there was the input from the freelancer who did the design. And then there were the developers and the data people within the lab that were developing the application and the receiver of the reports that were in the local newspapers. The central hub was the Visual Lab.

L ä nnen Media: ‘A Premium News Agency’

At L ä nnen Media, story ideas come from the editor-in-chief, news editors, and the journalists based at newsrooms across the country. A primary challenge is identifying stories that will be of interest to readers around Finland, particularly in the areas served by partner newspapers. Editor-in-Chief Matti Posio said that when determining which news L ä nnen Media should cover, they consider whether the story is interesting and the effect it will have on the lives of readers.

In terms of news, the capital city issues are less dividing than stories from other regions, so when you have a story from another region, the reader would always ask, ‘Why are they having this story from a different region? Are they trying to somehow trick me or just use the same stories again and again in various places? What is this?’ But there is no problem with the Helsinki-based stories in that way. So, from another region, it needs to be a really big news event, like a major car crash or whatever, but what we do is, we try to cover the issues and then we would use the people and interviews and cases from those regions where the journalists are.

Reporter Rajala, who is based at Turun Sanomat , said reporting stories that resonate with all regions in Finland can be challenging and might vary depending on the news event.

It’s a bit tricky, especially about the weather, because the weather in the south and north are completely different [things] in many times of the year. So, at the beginning of the week, we had a big storm in Finland. Of course, in the southern parts they were more affected than in the north, but I wonder if the northern newspapers weren’t so interested, but we did a lot of stories. Sometimes they win, sometimes the southern papers win. But, in general, it should be like that, that the topic considers much of the people, no matter where they live in the country.

The staff of Theme Editor Riikka Happonen are responsible for developing several theme pages each week and three to four features for the weekend, including topics such as lifestyle (work, home, relationships), health, consumer news, food, travel, and cars. She said that because of the longer turn-around time for features, her team, which is housed in multiple newsrooms, spends more time discussing story ideas and sharing feedback with one another.

Our themes are so-called ‘useful information’ for the reader, so it comes from those interpretations, and I think our newspapers are expecting that we are doing those kinds of stories for them. They can do the local entertainment and news by themselves, but we get something more, and I think also we have to think about the reader. Otherwise, our stories are not so important to the reader – the reader may read local news in any case, but there has to be a reason why he is interested in our common stories.

Turun Sanomat ’s Hyvönen said editors at participating newspapers can suggest stories to cover, but decisions are ultimately left to L ä nnen Media staff, although the newspapers’ news editors determine which articles they want to print. In some cases, newspapers use a L ä nnen Media story for national context while assigning their journalists to provide local context.

Whenever there is a bigger story and it’s one where we can add some real information, then we would do it. For us it’s like a news agency. Like a premium news agency.

Content Distribution

All three of the collaborations aimed to reach as wide an audience as possible. They pursued this goal through empowering a network to concurrently produce multiple local articles focused on one overarching topic (‘L’Italia Delle Slot’, the Bureau Local) or multiple beats or subjects (L ä nnen Media). Articles were presented in various formats, from local and regional print and online newspapers to national digital-born outlets to radio and TV features to hyperlocal websites and blogs.

In two of the collaborations, the Bureau Local and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’, this reporting was also accompanied by a centrally developed online portal, which included articles offering national context and links to the local articles, as well as infographics, videos, and interactive features.

The Bureau Local: Creating a ‘Big Push’

The Bureau Local’s investigations, which are published with local and national press partners, are all released on the same day to enhance the impact of the reporting and spark local and national dialogue.

Archant’s Bristow, who has participated in several Bureau Local investigations, said this strategy has been effective and allows more people to see the stories than would otherwise, from local and national politicians to citizens to those directly affected. It can also inspire days or weeks of follow-up reporting.

Rachel Hamada said having one fixed publication date can be a challenge for the Bureau Local team, which needs to ensure that national print or broadcast coverage lines up with the embargoed date that network members sign up to, but the benefits make it all worthwhile.

What it creates is a big push, a big impact. Lots of local politicians will see the stories at the same time, national politicians, and so on. It’s proven to be a really effective formula. People could break the embargo. I’m not sure what we could really do, but people have tended not to, probably because, I think, people see the value in presenting those stories collectively. There’s much more power in them all coming out at once than them coming out in a dribble.

Director Megan Lucero said the centrally produced national report for each investigation, produced by Bureau Local reporters and released on its website, plays an important role in ensuring all the reporting reaches a broad audience.

We always focus on having local stories and national stories because both need to be told. They need to be seen by those who can change it. At the end of the day, we are looking at systemic issues, and it’s important for people to be informed locally and nationally about these findings. These stories have to be put at the seat of power.

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’: An Opportunity for Interactivity

Both editions of the ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project were released as a Visual Lab-created website with interactive interfaces so users could access data on their particular cities and regions, as well as infographics and data visualisations, a glossary, and in the case of the second edition, a comparison with the previous year.

These features were accompanied by a collection of articles published simultaneously across the GEDI Group’s 13 local newspapers and the local editions of La Repubblica and La Stampa . All the local newspapers received the date on which the articles should be published within the group, and they could produce follow-up reporting.

The Visual Lab’s Bruschi said this distribution strategy – a centrally produced web presence linking to the local articles – allowed the local newspapers to give their readers access to more complex, customised, and interactive web features than they might otherwise. The project also spurred reporting on slot machines and gaming by non-GEDI newspapers around Italy.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Cagnan said that, although his newspapers allocated two pages to the first investigation, they continued to follow the topic over the following days, ‘interviewing and trying to understand the reasons why’ slot machine usage and distribution had grown.

L ä nnen Media: Finding an Online Strategy

For L ä nnen Media, dozens of stories are made available daily to the partner newspapers via a shared content management system (L ä nnen Media does not have its own distribution platform). The newspapers then choose the stories they want to publish. In Kaleva , for example, 30–40% of articles a day, on average, are produced by L ä nnen Media.

Once a story has been assigned to a L ä nnen Media reporter, whether in Helsinki or one of the partner newsrooms, a photographer and graphic designer from that newsroom (or a Helsinki newsroom or freelance photographer) create visuals to accompany the piece, which can then be shared with other L ä nnen Media publications. L ä nnen Media makes print articles and layouts available to newspapers, as well as online versions.

News Editor Jussi Orell said L ä nnen Media editors now make daily decisions about which articles participating newspapers can publish for free and which offer ‘something extra’ to justify payment, such as a piece of political commentary or a human interest feature on Finnish politicians or ‘interesting common people’ – stories that cross regional boundaries.

I think that in terms of the person we are writing about, it doesn’t matter where he or she comes from. If the story is interesting enough, it works.

Editor-in-Chief Posio said analytics connected with digital content, which are provided by partner newspapers, increasingly inform news selection. Often the most popular stories are those that address ‘what’s actually important in life’, he said, such as health, relationship, and lifestyle stories that offer a reader-service component.

4. Collaboration and Community Impact

Even as the transition to digital news challenges geographic ties, local news organisations highlight the trust they have cultivated with readers and their distinctive ability to address local problems and suggest solutions (Jenkins and Nielsen 2018). 2 Many local journalists also embrace community-centred approaches to reporting, such as advocacy and solutions journalism (Ali et al. 2018).

The collaborative initiatives explored in this report reflect this wider emphasis on building, reflecting the needs of, and working alongside communities. Participants said these efforts allow them to better connect with readers, enhance the reach of their reporting, and potentially create impact in the form of public dialogue and responses from political leaders.

This chapter focuses on the strategies collaboration participants use to better understand, tell the stories of, and connect with their communities. It then addresses the impact collaboration participants perceive their work is having, both at the local and national levels.

Connecting with Communities

Although all of the collaboration examples reflect networked approaches in which participants from across a country contribute content to reveal national trends, they also aim to allow local journalists to better cover their areas. Participants use strategies such as working alongside local grassroots and non-profit organisations to tell stories, hosting public forums to discuss local issues, and even creating a stage show to illustrate the implications of an investigation topic.

The Bureau Local: Bringing the Community into Local Reporting

The Bureau Local worked with campaigners, civil society groups, NGOs, members of Parliament, and other individuals and organisations to develop its recent investigations into homeless deaths and domestic violence refuges and better report on what they see as key concerns facing their communities. They also hold collaborative reporting days to draw people together with knowledge of and experience with different issues.

Director Megan Lucero said this emphasis on working within communities to tell stories is central to the aims of the Bureau Local and allows the network to build trust with those directly affected by the topics they investigate.

If you want to have accountability, you need to bring in all the players in the process. … We care about who is affected by the issue, who is embedded or knows the issue very deeply, who is causing the issue, who’s part of the issue, and then who can change the issue? These are the key players we ideally want to collaborate with.

When the Bureau Local began its investigation into local council spending in autumn 2017, they were overwhelmed by the amount of data compiled on the extent of proposed cuts and possible implications for public services. Lucero said they asked, ‘How do we narrow it to what actually matters to people?’ In response, they hosted an expert roundtable, including members of a women’s budget group and finance directors from a local council, to identify key problems to address.

The Bureau Local has also relied on non-traditional venues to tell its stories. As part of its domestic violence investigation, the journalists collaborated with a survivor, Cash Carraway, who wanted to share her story in the form of a touring stage show, Refuge Woman (see Figure 5). The Bureau supported the show, which travelled around the country and included a panel discussion during which journalists discussed their experiences reporting on domestic violence and budget cuts facing refuges.

Figure 5. A poster advertising Refuge Woman , a semi-autobiographical, one-woman play about life in a domestic violence refuge

Carraway’s presentation also included a critique of how the media interact with and report on victims, which Rachel Hamada, a community organiser for the Bureau Local, said ‘reversed the narrative’ and forced journalists to look back at themselves. She said the show also drew emotional responses from audience members.

[There were] very powerful comments from women who had gone through this themselves but also from people who’d come along … and been hugely affected and hugely hit by what they’d heard during the evening. It’s hard to come out of that and not feel something.

Emma Pearson, News Editor with the Lancashire Post , participated in the panel discussion at the Lancaster performance of Refuge Woman . She said the experience was important for making connections and continuing to report on the challenges facing domestic violence victims:

We did a Q&A session around it with local groups, and that was good just for building contacts and meeting people that we wouldn’t have met otherwise, so it carried on for quite a long time afterwards because what I think most papers tend to do is work very hard on a project, put it in the paper, and then forget about it. So, it kept giving for quite a few months afterwards, so that was good as well.

Emma Youle, a special correspondent for HuffPost UK who formerly worked with the Archant Investigations Unit, also participated in a Refuge Woman panel discussion and said it helped her better understand how the experience of dealing with the press impacts on survivors of domestic violence. In the performance, Carraway said she appreciated that when she was interviewed for the Bureau Local investigation, the journalist focused on budget cuts to refuge provision and its implications, rather than emphasising her experience as a victim. Youle said:

It was a real eye-opener to hear how somebody had felt about being on the receiving end of the questions journalists ask when reporting a story like that, and to think about the way that you try to represent other people’s stories and do that without taking their story away from them.

Lucero said journalists should embrace opportunities to work alongside invested community members to enhance accountability reporting.

I think journalism has been afraid to touch that space because you think, oh, we’re not activists. I need to have an objective approach. Journalists are humans. Journalists are not robots. You have perspective, but it’s about consciously putting forward the aim to seek the truth and to see both sides, and you have to hear all perspectives. So it’s about bringing them [the community] into it.

The Bureau is also working to connect local journalists with engagement experts who can conduct clinics or provide tools on how to work with communities, Hamada said.

Another thing that we’re looking at is something like community engagement recipes. Just as we have reporting recipes, helping people have quite structured ways of thinking through how they can work with their various local communities, to make sure that they’re getting genuine input locally, not just speaking to the same people over and over again, which, especially if you’re time poor, it’s easy for that to happen.

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’: Topic-Driven Partnerships

Covering the prevalence and implications of slot machines in Italy required not only working with the GEDI Group and its newspapers but also seeking out the perspectives of local civic groups, health organisations, NGOs, and academics invested in the issue.

Dataninja founder Alessio Cimarelli said he prefers to work on projects that focus on identifying an important issue, gathering and analysing data to provide context, working with news organisations to ask questions about the topic, and then helping newspapers to share these findings with readers in an engaging way. He suggested that in some cases, journalists and activists can work together, but transparency is always key. These efforts can be particularly effective at the local level, where the local newspaper and local organisations can work together on topics affecting local citizens, he said.

We are very happy to collaborate with different newspapers, different groups, different news companies, on a large project. Because some projects and issues can be phased only at the big level, it needs resources in time and in skills. Some topics, it would be very interesting to see a partnership from a newspaper and an NGO, so civic activists interested in one specific topic. And then I think that the newspaper can go with the organised citizens on a topics basis and start to build a community around the topic, start with an already structured organisation of the citizens.

Effecinque founder Raffaele Mastrolonardo said that while he and Cimarelli refrain from taking a particular stance on issues, they remain passionate about the need to make the data available and accessible to a wide audience.

We’re just saying that supporting the slot machines, or challenging the slot machines, you need information in order to make informed decisions through an informed public debate. The public needs to be informed. Slot machines and gambling are a huge thing with big economic, health, and cultural implications, and this issue is a political issue. … So our mission was, and is, to provide the public with the data that should enable more informed decisions about it.

L ä nnen Media: Avoiding ‘False Locality’

Editors with L ä nnen Media see their dispersed network of reporters as a resource that allows them to become engaged with issues and people in different parts of Finland.

A Lännen Media journalist said this strategy is ‘good for news’ because it ensures that when big news happens, a reporter is ready to get local perspectives.

A couple of years ago, there were big problems with the Talvivaara mine, and there was an environmental catastrophe that was really big news. It was really good that we had a Lännen Media journalist in Kajaani because she already knew all the local things, she knew the people, and she was near the place where everything happened. Because here in Helsinki, 600 kilometers from Sotkamo, we write what specialists or experts said, but she was really in the place where it happened.

Although L ä nnen Media reporters are headquartered in multiple cities, because they focus on writing articles to reach broad audiences, they are careful not to overemphasise location in their reporting, instead focusing on sources and topics with broad interest and appeal.

Theme Editor Riikka Happonen said she and her team avoid ‘false locality’ when choosing sources for features, that is, they are careful to feature people whose stories will be interesting to readers from anywhere in the country, regardless of where the story takes place. Happonen said they ‘find those kinds of people that their story is so interesting that they don’t become that false locality, if you understand. But I think we have been able to solve these problems, but we think of that every day.’

They also work with other reporters across the network to identify sources so that all regions are consistently represented.

Enhancing Impact

Although the collaborations have only been operating for a few years, their organisers and participants shared multiple examples of ways their reporting has spurred reader response; public dialogue; and, in some cases, the promise of tangible change in their countries.

Respondents also often reinforced that the strategies pursued by the collaborations – data-driven reporting, synchronised publication, local reporting published alongside national context – helped them to achieve goals for their work that they might not reach on their own or working only with one local newsroom.

The Bureau Local: Bringing Issues to Light

The Bureau Local staff tracks and shares the impact of investigations with its network via its newsletter, Slack channel, and blog posts. Lucero said they are working to create meaningful measurements around the impact of their reporting, particularly considering that the next-day responses can differ widely from ‘what happens years down the line’.

As a recent example, Lucero cited the effects of the ‘Dying Homeless’ investigation, which was featured in a Channel 4 broadcast and in 78 national and 100 local articles and has led to the collection of official government statistics that were not previously recorded.

Freelance journalist Samir Jeraj, who worked with fellow freelancer Natalie Bloomer covering homeless deaths in Northampton, said that since their articles were published, the once half-full night shelter on which they reported is now 90% full. ‘They’ve not explicitly changed policy, but they have in practice changed, and there’s been no admission that was down to us or anything’, he said. ‘We just see the results.’

Jeraj said two of the charities featured in his and Bloomer’s articles have been told to vacate their council-owned facilities, and have set up a petition and campaign to allow them to maintain their space, which he and Bloomer are covering, in addition to launching a podcast about homelessness.

Youle, of HuffPost UK, said a benefit of working with the Bureau Local on the investigation about cuts to domestic violence refuge funding is that the Archant Investigations Unit has continued to report on the issues raised in the stories.

The really good thing about the investigative stories we did with the Bureau is that the issues you report on, such as cuts to domestic violence refuge funding, become embedded in the newsroom. The stories give each local paper a really strong point of reference to refer back to each time funding for domestic violence services comes up in a council meeting, for example; you can point back to the reporting done previously. This certainly happens all the time when you’ve published a big investigation like this in a local paper. You continue to report on the issues. These become issues that the editors and the local reporting teams continue to keep an eye on.

‘L’Italia Delle Slot’: Spurring Data-Informed Change

The ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project has also resulted in change, such as the deputy mayor in Pavia using the investigation’s data set as a justification for better regulating the city’s slot machines, said Marianna Bruschi, Head of the Visual Lab. She added, ‘Using this data set – I think that is important that a journalistic project can also have a social role.’ Other mayors, she said, wrote to the GEDI Group to emphasise that they are ‘proud to be a no-slot town’.

The project also led to public discussion, particularly on social media, with readers sharing their concerns about the extent of gambling in their communities, Bruschi said. It aided activists in their work as well, as Effecinque’s Mastrolonardo described.

There are a lot of activists who are fighting for the so-called ‘No Slot’ movement. I think that this provided these people a lot of information, the data, using it for their own purposes. So, I think that this had a positive effect on the conversation.

The political debate around slot machines has also shifted, Mastrolonardo said, as illustrated by the announcement of a mandatory government program forcing companies to scale back the number of machines they run.

L ä nnen Media: Strength in Volume

L ä nnen Media staff members focused less on impact than on producing articles that resonate with readers around Finland. L ä nnen Media editors and reporters said they do not have access to analytics on their articles, as those are the purview of the regional newspapers, but they shared examples of stories that they felt positively affected readers or sparked dialogue.

L ä nnen Media reporter Ossi Rajala said the biggest story he has covered was the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018. He said a team of ten L ä nnen Media reporters covered the event for an ‘intense’ three weeks.

International reporter Lea Peuhkuri, who is based at Turun Sanomat , described a reporting trip to Gaza with a group of Nordic journalists. She interviewed a woman living a few kilometres from the border who described very matter of factly what they did, the rockets coming from Hamas, from Gaza basically, and it had been going on for almost 20 years, and she had always lived there.

… So, I wrote a story on her interview, and I included what was going on in Gaza at that moment, so I tried to somehow bring the big picture.

Peuhkuri said the article prompted multiple responses, including ‘praise that it’s good you write about it from the Israeli perspective’.

Theme Editor Happonen described a story in her section on parents struggling with their children and the common mistakes they make, which drew heavy traffic for several of the newspapers where it was published online. She said the response wasn’t expected for a reader-service feature, but ‘it was a really good story and it was quality’.

Editor-in-Chief Matti Posio said that when websites promoting disinformation and hate speech emerged in Finland in 2015, one website began to steal stories from legacy outlets, including L ä nnen Media, ‘twisting and changing the meaning and trying to influence people to stir up things’. Eventually, a L ä nnen Media journalist uncovered the founder of the site, who was eventually arrested.

I really think our stories made an impact on this, and also it was felt by some of our journalists who were harassed by the same people quite heavily, so it was important to cover and also see what happens in the courts. I think really that we won over everybody who supports facts and fact-checking media and responsible media and real journalists as opposed to fake personalities and fake news. That really was a big victory for us all.

Posio said that although journalists have produced multiple stories spurring reactions and awareness, L ä nnen Media’s strength is in the volume and doing things regularly and thousands of stories.

… There are some investigative stories that have been quite substantial lately, but still I think the impact is more on the variety of things. Because you have the newspapers coming out every day, so you have this whole area of content that you would not have.

5. Benefits and Challenges of Collaboration

Participants identified both benefits and challenges associated with pursuing collaboration (Table 3). In particular, they emphasised the value in assembling large, diverse groups of people invested in producing high-quality local journalism and willing to share their expertise and knowledge with others in the network. They also emphasised that collaborative approaches help them enhance their content, publishing in-depth, data-driven reporting that they would not have the time and resources to produce outside the collaborative network. The size of the network and the scope of the reporting also suggest that it can have broader reach and impact than if newspapers and journalists work individually.

Collaboration is also challenging, and respondents discussed the obstacles they have faced in ensuring they meet their editorial, technological, and commercial aims. In particular, they emphasised the need to build trust with journalists and other participants in different types of newsrooms, organisations, and locations. Leaders of the collaborations also discussed the ways they have worked to adapt their structures and oversight strategies to meet the needs of participants, and to consider the financial sustainability of their operations.

This chapter focuses on how respondents identified and discussed benefits and challenges of collaboration.

Table 3. Benefits and challenges of collaboration

Benefits of Collaboration

Respondents said the primary benefit of collaboration for local journalism is maximising resources for newsrooms that are increasingly strapped – for time, revenues, skills development, and other needs. Respondents said that participating in a collaboration allows them to engage in deeper reporting and investigations than they would be able to conduct on their own or even in small, newsroom-based investigative teams. Collaboration also helps them connect with sources and data that provide valuable national context for their reporting.

Veijo Hyvönen, Managing Editor of Turun Sanomat , said the biggest benefit of membership in L ä nnen Media is that, rather than paying journalists to produce national and international coverage, he can focus on investing in local and regional news. He said the bigger audience also means that L ä nnen Media reporters can access presidents, prime ministers, and other sources they might not otherwise reach.

In L ä nnen Media, there are about 40 journalists, and the cost to us is about the cost of six journalists, so that’s the mathematics behind it. Of course not all the material that we get from the 40 journalists is exactly right for us, but we are still getting gains.

Emma Youle, a special correspondent for HuffPostUK, said the benefit of working with Bureau Local is that it splits investigative work among multiple journalists who can share their knowledge and experience. She gave the example of an investigation into the finances of local councils that gave local journalists access to data sets from around the country.

Local journalists would probably only really be interested in the specific data for their local area, but it’s really helpful to be able to put that in context and show how the figures locally compare to other areas and the national trend. Where collaboration can really help is if every local journalist who might be interested in that data picks up some of the workload, in terms of sending out Freedom of Information requests, for example, that allows the team to gather data for the whole country. You can find out what the national picture is and better report the local context. So, I think there are huge benefits of time saving. You can also do a much more detailed job of research because you split the work between a number of different people.

The editors, journalists, and others involved in collaboration also emphasised the value of uniting diverse types of actors in news production, which can yield better journalism.

Rachel Hamada, a community organiser for the Bureau Local, said network members, both journalists and non-journalists, teach one another, particularly how to use data effectively in reporting, and offer mentorship. This focus has helped to break down views of journalism as a ‘competitive sport’, she said, with journalists from newspapers owned by large legacy publishers working alongside journalists from digital start-ups and locally owned outlets.

The Bureau Local also attracts people with interests in particular issues, which inspires follow-up reporting in the long term. Adam Cantwell-Corn, co-founder of the Bristol Cable , who worked with the Bureau to develop an investigation into racial profiling during immigration enforcement in the UK, said drawing together like-minded journalists sped up the reporting process in a productive way.

A lot of journalists are generalists, which is good in a way, but it obviously has its weaknesses in coming to a topic and then having to quickly get your head around the whole new set of information concepts. But the idea with the Bureau is to integrate experts on those issues straight away and then also to match up different skillsets as well as knowledge sets.

Editor-in-Chief Matti Posio said L ä nnen Media has not only raised the level of content for member newspapers but also provides professional development for the journalists involved. He said reporters work for L ä nnen Media in two- to three-year shifts and then rotate back to their home newspapers, allowing them to share the expertise they have gained with their colleagues.

When there are larger newsrooms and smaller newsrooms in the same partnership, not always the best journalists are in the biggest media. Sometimes there are really great journalists in the smaller media, and now they can have this opportunity to also advance their career and take a different angle. It’s also a project for educating journalists.

Effecinque founder Raffaele Mastrolonardo compared these partnerships to interdisciplinary scientific research in which teams do not assume that ‘one person knows it all’. Rather:

It might be that different people have different skills, very specific skills, which might entail using some tools, and maybe you have to find the person that knows how to use that tool, or that knows which tool you’re supposed to use for that particular approach, so that’s what it [collaboration] is to me, the fact that nowadays there is this idea, and more people in the news business tend to accept this fact that you need different people, because you need different skills, and all these skills cannot be within the same person anymore.

Another benefit of collaboration was the resulting articles, with respondents frequently noting that working as part of larger, more diversified networks allows them to produce more in-depth, context-driven, and in some cases interactive content . In the case of the Bureau Local and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’, the availability and integration of large-scale data sets allows journalists to enhance their reporting and situate local issues within national trends.

Emma Pearson, News Editor with the Lancashire Post , worked on the Bureau Local’s domestic violence investigation. She said that, with some other data journalism projects, journalists might receive a set of figures illustrating a topic, but ‘it’s only really a starting point’. Rather, the Bureau Local spends months investigating issues, gathering relevant data, developing story angles, and preparing ‘reporting recipes’ to guide readers through the information.

What you’ve got with the Bureau is that it’s a lot more finished. … It needs a lot less work from our people to do. And also I think just the topics they pick, they’ve obviously just got good people with good news sense who pick well to cover things that are interesting and relevant to everybody.

The approach of the ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project ensured that the topic was covered across the country, rather than just in areas with larger newspapers, and allowed local journalists to add a broader dimension to their reporting. Visual Lab Head Marianna Bruschi said:

In a daily newspaper, you often work very, very fast. Maybe you have some data about your territory, but never so deep. So you probably write about a man who has lost all his money gambling, but this is a singular story. I think that this kind of project helps you have a singular story but also the context in which the story is developed.

Anna Ghezzi, a reporter at La Provincia Pavese , spent two days (and nights) working on her contribution to the first ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project, setting aside some of her day-to-day reporting responsibilities. She said that, although her newsroom does not necessarily have the time, people, or energy to engage in this type of investigation regularly, it can also reinforce to readers that the local newspaper values accountability reporting.

It’s something that is really appreciated because it’s going out of the ordinary. It’s showing that we can also do something different from basic reporting on things that are happening. The fact that this is something that we do altogether with tools, instruments, and energy from outside but in the end also writing about our territory.

The collaborations all release their content across participating outlets simultaneously. Some participants said the requirement that they align themselves with others’ deadlines and sacrifice story exclusivity was initially difficult to embrace. However, these concerns are overshadowed by the opportunities to cover stories and topics they might not have the time or ability to pursue, as well as reach broader audiences and provoke national conversations .

Chris Burn, Assistant Features Editor at the Yorkshire Post , said working with the Bureau Local on the homeless deaths investigation demonstrated the potential of elevating local stories, even ones that local newspapers had previously covered, into public concerns:

It had an immediate, powerful impact because it was being reported everywhere, and it wasn’t ‘There’s been 15 deaths in Bristol,’ it was, ‘There has been 500 deaths, and look at all these local case studies of what’s going on across the country.’ So, it had that immediate hit basically. It kind of entered the public consciousness a bit more than perhaps previous ones that we’ve done.

Projects like the Bureau Local investigations and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ are also promoted heavily by the central teams, who share them on their websites and social media accounts and create press releases and launch events, helping expose findings from the local investigations to a national audience. Cantwell-Corn said this ensures that investigations reach audiences not typically exposed to this type of reporting.

You’re reaching audiences that are geographically and potentially demographically diverse. For me it was really important that a lot of these issues made it into mainstream local publications as well, that it wasn’t just more liberally minded organisations like the Guardian, and so we’re reaching a population that might not be as exposed to that sort of reporting on these sorts of issues.

Challenges of Collaboration

Involving new actors in journalistic work, covering controversial topics, working across diverse geographic areas, and agreeing to approach stories in similar ways also comes with challenges. Although participants were quick to emphasise the many positive implications of collaborations, they also pointed to the more difficult aspects of achieving their aims.

In particular, respondents discussed the challenge of building trust across the different journalists and news organisations involved. This trust-building came at various stages in the collaborative process, from creating the mission and goals, to recruiting and building a network, to distributing editorial projects. They also discussed the need to develop a shared language for talking about their reporting, as well as a shared culture and clear standards for news production.

When regional newspaper publishers came together to develop L ä nnen Media, the first challenge was establishing a clear mission and shared expectations. Kyösti Karvonen, Editor-in-Chief of Kaleva , was part of the founding group and stressed the need to communicate clearly.

We had meetings up and down the country, tough talking, but there were also backlashes and conflicts and problems, but the way you solve them is you try to sit down and talk and talk.

Editors and journalists involved in L ä nnen Media continually work to adapt to one another’s working styles. For example, one journalist said that because ‘every newspaper has a different history and different culture’, they take time to discuss what types of stories Lännen Media should provide and how to achieve a consistent reporting approach.

Culture was also a consideration for the Bureau Local and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ investigations, particularly convincing editors and journalists at local newsrooms to take time away from their daily duties to invest in data journalism. Birmingham City University’s Paul Bradshaw said the Slack channel and open newsrooms, as well as efforts by Bureau Local staff to actively reach out to potential participants and promote their work and goals, have helped to diversify the network and drive participation, sparking what he called a ‘massive’ culture shift.

Director Megan Lucero said developing a common mission and reporting approach for the Bureau Local, and then communicating them to participants, has taken time and effort, particularly with a small Bureau Local staff which is also heavily involved in reporting, answering questions, building tools and resources, promoting the work, and developing funding streams.

It was actually a huge challenge to get people to speak the same language or find a common goal and that common way of approaching an issue. I don’t think journalism has traditionally been very good at project management. It’s not necessarily skills that have been embedded in the trade of journalism.

The participants in the ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project faced similar constraints. Dataninja founder Alessio Cimarelli said that after spending years collecting and analysing the slots data, he had to ensure that GEDI’s local newspapers not only embraced the focus of the investigation, which came naturally, but also the value of reporting on it using new techniques.

They are always interested in the story and in the news. The problems are after this step, to organise the work, to extract stories from data after quite long work on data, to accept a way to do the things in an experimental way.

Collaboration also requires that participants subscribe to the larger expectations of the project or initiative and trust that other participants, particularly those working for competing news organisations, will do the same. This constraint was particularly evident in the UK, where a few national companies dominate the local newspaper landscape, potentially edging out journalists working for independent publishers, hyperlocal news sites, or on a freelance basis.

Emma Pearson, News Editor with the Lancashire Post , which is owned by JPI (formerly Johnston Press), said the Bureau Local’s independence and grant-based funding model helped to assuage some of these fears.

There were some people within the organisation who were slightly wary of it. I think, because obviously all newspapers work for separate groups, you’re always in competition with each other, so there’s a natural instinct to mistrust outsiders, but the Bureau was so obviously different and independent and funded differently – it wasn’t cutting across us in any way – so I think after that people kind of got to see that it wasn’t threatening to us in any way.

Because topic selection at the Bureau Local typically emerges from the central team, and has to be broad enough that journalists from around the country can participate, collaborators also must trust a process that ‘extends upwards’, as freelance journalist Samir Jeraj described. That is, while local journalists are free to pursue angles that are meaningful to their areas, they have less influence on the narrative developed by the central team that puts the stories into a national context. Ultimately, Jeraj said, ‘It should just be about “what’s the strong angle?” rather than “what’s going to please the most number of collaborators?”’

In discussing future goals for their collaborations, respondents often addressed the need to implement sustainable oversight and communication structures . The collaborations largely operate according to networked rather than hierarchical approaches. As a result, they can remain flexible and change their strategies to best serve participants.

Sustainability concerns also involved discussions of the business models for the collaborations. The Bureau Local depends on grants and donations to operate, while Lännen Media and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ rely on standard commercial approaches (subscriptions, memberships, print and online advertising, and online paywalls).

Lännen Media editors discussed the challenge of standardising payments for online articles, as participating publishers use a variety of paywall criteria. Turun Sanomat ’s Hyvönen said:

We have to somehow get our strategies closer together. The work has already begun.

The ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ project merged two data journalism start-ups with a large legacy publisher as part of a short-term, project-based set of contracts, with no guarantees of continued collaboration. Cimarelli said Dataninja has to carefully manage opportunities and commitments as it tries to ‘scale up and exit from the start-up phase’.

The continuation of the project will also depend on other legacy publishers like GEDI embracing the involvement of new types of actors and different styles of reporting, said Effecinque’s Mastrolonardo, which would warrant a culture change in the current landscape.

I think right now in Italy, you have a core of young, good journalists who are doing innovative journalism. You start having some young journalists working on traditional media like Marianna [Bruschi] who understand how it is important. But you still have, unfortunately, the higher-ups in the business who seem a bit more slow to get it. So, this is a gap that you have to fill.

The Bureau Local is funded by multiple grants, including from the Google Digital News Initiative and the Engaged Journalism Accelerator. Lucero said they are also exploring the potential of paid memberships, which will require ‘ deepening the way that we think about community. How do we support this network? How do we deepen our connections with those communities?’

This is a primary concern of Hamada and her co-community organiser, Eliza Anyangwe, who are working to develop new strategies for allowing story ideas to emerge from within the network and also from communities with expertise and experience across the country, in addition to those driven by the central team.

It’s finding that sweet spot between having the whole story tied up so that you don’t provide opportunities for other people to get involved and contribute insight and skills but also making sure that you’re out in front enough that you have an authoritative grasp on the story. … So basically just making sure that you’re abreast of all of the different questions and angles that might come up when you work with people as a network and remembering to be welcoming and responsive to people’s questions. They have a right to query what you’re saying.

Finally, respondents agreed that collaboration offers an important means for addressing difficulties faced by the local news sector . Collaboration also allows local journalists to access experience, skills, and resources that will remain necessary in a precarious news environment. Lucero called collaboration, particularly focused on data reporting, ‘the future of journalism’.

You’re entering a world in which there’s far more information and far more technological advances than a human alone can do. … Humans can’t compete with computers. We need to equip journalists to have computational methods that can dig into systems that are holding information about public life.

Aron Pilhofer, James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University and a Bureau Local advisory board member, said one of the primary challenges of collaboration is establishing the ‘terms of engagement’, including keeping the network connected and ensuring participants fulfil their responsibilities. He said this can be particularly difficult for short-term or one-time collaborations, which makes the Bureau Local’s approach effective.

I think an organisation like the Bureau can play that key role of competitor, collaborator, referee. … What the Bureau Local is trying to do is have that infrastructure for collaboration and build those pathways and make sure that the collaboration is ongoing. I think that’s a really brilliant model.

Kathryn Geels, Director of the European Journalism Centre’s Engaged Journalism Accelerator, a Bureau Local funder, said she has seen a shift in the discourse among local media in the UK.

A few years ago, when I was working in hyperlocal publishing, I felt that regional press were saying that the BBC was the cause for their demise. It was the BBC’s role to help to prop up regional press. Then a few years later, it seemed the blame was going towards the likes of Google and Facebook, rather than regional press necessarily looking at themselves to see what is it that they’re doing that could be done differently and to help themselves.

This report explored the potential of collaborative approaches for addressing the challenges facing local media. We conducted 31 interviews with both journalists and non-journalists working at all levels of collaborations in Finland, Italy, and the UK to determine how their collaborations began; their strategies for developing and distributing news; and their perceptions of the potential these initiatives hold for producing high-quality, engaging, and impactful journalism.

The collaboration cases in this report reflect three distinct models: (1) ongoing collaboration in topic-driven projects; (2) short-term collaboration on a single topic; and (3) collaboration through shared content distribution.

We show how each structure balances various forms of resource sharing with the need to mitigate competitive pressures, and how each responds to distinct challenges facing local news in the respective countries.

In the UK, which has seen the loss of hundreds of newspaper jobs over the last decade, the Bureau Local unites a large network of journalists and non-journalists to use data to report on topics with both local and national implications. Similarly, in Italy, a growing data-journalism movement gave rise to two start-up organisations, which partnered with one of the country’s largest publishers to produce a data-informed investigation into the national rise of slot machines, ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’. Finally, in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, a group of prominent regional newspapers in Finland created a joint news agency, L ä nnen Media, to ensure they could continue to provide international, national, and local reporting to their readers.

We found that, even with their differing contexts and strategies, these collaborations converge in important ways. In particular, they value opportunities to unite participants with diverse backgrounds, skills, and expertise as equal partners and offer both virtual and in-person opportunities for knowledge-sharing and mentorship. This mission extends beyond professional journalists to engaging with local citizens as well as organisations with experiences and interest in the topics under investigation to determine what stories should be told. The collaborations enhance this potential by developing distribution strategies with both localised and national-picture coverage. As a result, despite the relatively short lifespan of these initiatives, they have shown evidence of impact in the form of responses from politicians, national discussions, and even policy change.

Respondents also identified challenges they face in their work, particularly the importance of encouraging participants to invest in a shared editorial mission and embrace common strategies for reporting, writing, and sharing content, even across competing news organisations. They also continually adjust their approaches to communication and project management to ensure that participants feel their needs and perspectives are addressed. Although leaders feel confident in the journalism their collaborations produce, they express uncertainty about their financial viability, both for the grant-funded and commercial models.

Respondents were hesitant to suggest that their collaborative strategy represents the definitive solution for local news, nor do they believe their initiative should seek to replace local news organisations in their countries. However, they emphasised that collaboration can offer an effective means for producing better local accountability journalism, addressing topics that might otherwise go uncovered, while allowing journalists to enhance their reporting skills, attract attention to key local and national issues, and more effectively engage with their communities.

Ali, C., Radcliffe, D., Schmidt, T. R., Donald, R. 2018. ‘Searching for Sheboygans: On the Future of Small Market Newspapers’,  Journalism 1–19. doi: 1464884917749667

Ausserhofer, J., Gutounig, R., Oppermann, M., Matiasek, S., Goldgruber, E. 2017. ‘The Datafication of Data Journalism Scholarship: Focal Points, Methods, and Research Propositions for the Investigation of Data-Intensive Newswork’,  Journalism 1–24. doi: 1464884917700667

Bryant, H. 2017. ‘Exploring Collaborative Journalism’, Medium , 9 June, https://medium.com/facet/exploring-collaborative-journalism-cbc8ef134386

Ciobanu, M. 2017. ‘The Bureau Local Held a Hack Day in Five Cities to Investigate Voter Power Ahead of the UK Election’, Journalism.co.uk, 14 June, www.journalism.co.uk/news/bureau-local-hack-day-investigate-voter-power-uk-election/s2/a705702/

Cornia, A., Sehl, A., Nielsen, R. K. 2016. Private Sector Media and Digital News . Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Franklin, B. 2006. Local Journalism and Local Media: Making the Local News . Abingdon: Routledge.

Graves, L., Konieczna, M. 2015. ‘Qualitative Political Communication, Sharing the News: Journalistic Collaboration as Field Repair’,  International Journal of Communication   9, 1966–84.

Graves, L., Shabbir, N. 2019. Gauging the Global Impacts of the ‘Panama Papers’ Three Years Later . Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Hallin, D. C., Mancini, P. 2004.  Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hess, K., Waller, L. 2017.  Local Journalism in a Digital World . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hujanen, J. 2008. ‘RISC Monitor Audience Rating and its Implications for Journalistic Practice’,  Journalism   9(2), 182–99.

Jenkins, J., Nielsen, R. K. 2018. The Digital Transition of Local News . Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Knight Foundation. 2018. ‘A Year of Local Collaboration’, Dec., www.niemanlab.org/2018/12/a-year-of-local-collaboration

Kramer, M. 2017. ‘Journalists around the World are Working Together More than Ever: Here are 56 Examples’, Poynter, 12 Apr., www.poynter.org/news/journalists-around-world-are-working-together-more-ever-here-are-56-examples

McGregor, S. E., Watkins, E. A., Al-Ameen, M. N., Caine, K., Roesner, F. 2017. ‘When the Weakest Link is Strong: Secure Collaboration in the Case of the Panama Papers’. 26th USENIX Security Symposium, 16–18 Aug., Vancouver, 505–22.

Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Kalogeropoulos, A., Levy, D. A., Nielsen, R. K. 2018. Digital News Report 2018 . Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Nielsen, R. K. 2015. ‘Introduction: The Uncertain Future of Local Journalism’, in R. K. Nielsen (ed.), Local Journalism: The Decline of Newspapers and the Rise of Digital Media . London: I.B.Tauris, 1–25.

Pew Research Center. 2019. ‘For Local News, Americans Embrace Digital But Still Want Strong Community Connection’, 26 Mar., www.journalism.org/2019/03/26/for-local-news-americans-embrace-digital-but-still-want-strong-community-connection

Sambrook, R. 2017. Global Teamwork: The Rise of Collaboration in Investigative Journalism . Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Stalph, F., Borges-Rey, E. 2018. ‘Data Journalism Sustainability: An Outlook on the Future of Data-Driven Reporting’,  Digital Journalism  6(8), 1078–89.

Stonbely, S. 2017. Comparing Models of Collaborative Journalism . Montclair, NJ: Montclair State University, Center for Cooperative Media.

About the Authors

Joy Jenkins is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Her research focuses on the sociology of news, particularly changing organisational structures and roles in newsrooms, the potential for news organisations to spur public engagement, and gender and media. She earned her doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2017, where she taught courses in news writing and reporting, magazine reporting, news and media literacy, and qualitative research methods. Her work has been published in multiple academic journals. She previously worked as a copy editor and reporter at an alternative newsweekly in Oklahoma City and as senior editor at a city magazine in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lucas Graves is acting Director of Research and a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He studies how news and news organisations are changing in the contemporary media ecosystem; his book Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political FactChecking in American Journalism (2016) was the first in-depth look at this rapidly growing genre of accountability reporting. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has written extensively on the economic, professional, and technological currents shaping news production today.

Acknowledgements

First, we would like to thank the 31 interviewees for taking the time to discuss their experiences with and perspectives on collaboration as a way to address challenges facing local news organisations. Their insights into the challenges, benefits, and potential of these initiatives and projects were enlightening and essential. Next, we appreciate former Journalist Fellow Nicola Bruno for helping us connect with interview respondents in Italy. Finally, we are grateful for the guidance, feedback, and support our colleagues at the Reuters Institute offered throughout the process of preparing this report, including Director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen; research team members Julie Posetti, Scott Brennen, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, Sílvia Majó-Vázquez, Nic Newman, and Anne Schulz; and administrative team members Louise Allcock, Rebecca Edwards, Christina Koster, and Alex Reid.

Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism with the support of the Google News Initiative.  

1 The Local Democracy Reporting Service began in 2018 and will allocate 150 reporters to news organisations across England, Scotland, and Wales to cover local authorities and public service organisations. Their reporting is shared with more than 800 news outlets.

2 A recent survey of US adults found that those who believed that their local journalists were in touch with their communities and whose local media covered the areas where they live rated the performance of their local media higher (Pew Research Center, 2019).

    Spring 2018, Vol. 29, No. 2

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Case Study: Doxing and Digital Journalism

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BY JASON HEAD

The crowdsourced nature of social media has made it possible for everyday individuals to gain celebrity status or to become known as public figures through their online personas. The malleable nature of online identity means that individuals are able to remain anonymous or control which parts of their identity are viewable to others, often making it easier to share controversial opinions or ideas. As such individuals gain more social and political influence, some argue that the public has a right to know who they are. This is why HuffPost started investigations into influential anonymous social media accounts, such as that of Mekelburg, that were spreading what many judge as false information and hate speech. HuffPost reporter Nick Baumann explains that while the First Amendment gives individuals the right to spread hate speech and discredited ideas anonymously, “the identities of influential anonymous people are inherently newsworthy” and should be made know to those who wish to know them. Baumann and O’Brien even argued that the story was not a case of doxing at all, since it presented newsworthy information to the public and answered concerns about the possibilities of Mekelburg’s account being an artificial bot or Russian troll. In this manner, they maintain that the story followed journalistic codes of ethics, including reaching out to Mekelburg’s family and her husband’s employer, World Wrestling Entertainment, who terminated his employment after news of the story broke.

The journalists maintained that this was not the coordinated harassment of many doxing campaigns, but was instead the common journalistic practice of seeking comments and reactions from those affected by the story before its publication. O’Brien argued that giving sources and affected parties “a chance to respond to information” is “exactly how ethical journalism works” and defended the information included in his report as necessary to the story. Emma Grey Ellis points out that while doxing campaigns tend to be undertaken by anonymous individuals that cannot be criticized in return, cases such as this involve named reporters who “have bylines, and can therefore be held accountable” for the stories they write and the information they include. Because of this, she argued that reporters like O’Brien “include only personal information that is relevant to a story--facts the public has a compelling interest in knowing.” Many believe that the information in the story was necessary to create a profile of Amy Mekelburg and provided context for her often-bigoted posts.

Others consider the story to be a case of justified doxing and as serving the public good. Many, like Marla Wilson, believe that doxing is “an effective way to make people think twice about being so bold with their racism” and that releasing the names of those behind racist online accounts creates a sense of accountability and encourages reflexivity by those who feel inclined to create them. Some argue that doxing forces those uttering unpopular opinions and beliefs to face the public and defend their ideologies rather than just placing them online.

Others believe O’Brien went too far in his story on Mekelburg and included information that was not necessary. In fact, some argue that the story was not necessary at all, and that by pursuing the identities of those behind social media accounts that spread beliefs considered reprehensible by some, it hurts rather than helps political and social discourse. Conservative reporter Kevin Boyd points out that by including background information about Mekelburg that revealed the identities of her family members and their businesses, the story gave “the impression that they either knew about or [agreed] with her tweets” and indicted them as supporters of her account and her beliefs. Because of such implications, many consider the story to be nothing more than an attempt to shame Mekelburg for her views and hurt her family’s businesses, ones that Mekelburg “has never been linked to or involved with” according to her sister-in-law Alicia Guevara. Damon McCoy points out that one of the main reasons doxing is used is to “expose those with whom [people] disagree with,” a position held by those who suggest that the report done by O’Brien and HuffPost was motivated by bringing shame to those with divergent political viewpoints. Some may argue that the revealing the identities of those behind reprehensible or unpopular speech is actually counterproductive to serving the public interest Tony McAleer, a former white supremacist who now runs a rehabilitation program for neo-Nazis, argues that doxing is not effective in ending hate speech and changing peoples’ viewpoints. “If isolation and shame is the driver for people joining [hate] groups, doxxing certainly isn’t the answer” argues McAleer. It actually “slows things down” in his efforts to rehabilitate those who subscribe to hateful ideologies given its employment of isolation and shame.

The ethics of doxing must be discussed more as its practice grows to include journalists and targets on all sides of the partisan spectrum. Emma Gray Ellis worries that “once you strip away the intentions… both sides are sharing the same swampy low ground” when doxing is used as an attempt to punish individuals for their political or personal beliefs. What are we to think about the uses of intentional or unintentional doxing by journalists working on contentious but important stories that might shed light on the political and social controversies of the day?

Discussion Questions

1. Was the HuffPost story on Mekelburg a case of doxing? Why or why not?

2. Was the story written and researched in the right way, regardless of whether we label it as a case of doxing?

3. Can journalists “dox” individuals behind online accounts? When and why can they participate in this practice? What limits should constrain their revelation of online identities?

4. How does the practice of doxing differ in the context of online journalism from that of activists seeking social justice? Does the role of journalist make any difference to the ethical limits of the act of doxing? How does investigative journalism differ from doxing, either by journalists or members of the public?

Further Information

Baumann, N. (2018, June 05). “A HuffPost Reporter Was Bombarded With Threats. Twitter Suspended Him.” HuffPost . Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/luke-obrien-doxed-threats-amymek_us_5b16bb9de4b0734a9937f2ca

Bowles, N. (2017, August 30). “How 'Doxxing' Became a Mainstream Tool in the Culture Wars.” New York Times . Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/technology/doxxing-protests.html

Boyd, K. (2018, June 04). “The HuffPost Ruined An Entire Family For One Person's Tweets.” The Federalist . Available at: https://thefederalist.com/2018/06/04/huffpost-ruined-entire-family-one-persons-tweets/

Ellis, E. G. (2017, August 17). “Don't Let the Alt-Right Fool You: Journalism Isn't Doxing.” Wired . Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/journalism-isnt-doxing-alt-right/

Ellis, E. G. (2017, August 18). Doxing Is a Perilous Form of Justice-Even When It's Outing Nazis. Wired . Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/doxing-charlottesville/

McCoy, D. (2018, May 01). When Studying Doxing Gets You Doxed.” HuffPost . Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-mccoy-doxing-study_us_5ae75ec7e4b02baed1bd06cc

O'Brien, L. (2018, May 31). “Trump's Loudest Anti-Muslim Twitter Troll is a Shady Vegan Wed to An Ex-WWE Exec.” HuffPost . Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-twitter-troll-amy-mek-mekelburg_us_5b0d9e40e4b0802d69cf0264

Wilson, M. (2018, June 06). “An Online Agitator, a Social Media Exposé and the Fallout in Brooklyn.” New York Times . Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/nyregion/amymek-mekelburg-huffpost-doxxing.html

• Jason Head is a research intern for the Media Ethics Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. More case studies and media ethics resources can be found at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org . Case studies produced by the Media Ethics Initiative remain the intellectual property of the Media Ethics Initiative and the University of Texas at Austin. They can be used in unmodified PDF form for classroom use. For use in publications such as textbooks and other works, please contact the Media Ethics Initiative .

Journalism students learn ethics through online case study

You're a college student working for a news service, and your editor asks you to check out a breaking-news situation.

You head to the scene, where you learn a teen singing sensation, Caitlyn Isaac, may have overdosed at her hotel following a concert.

What do you do? Who do you interview? And when do you know you've got a story ready to go?

Students in the  School of Journalism and Mass Communication 's J202: Mass Media Practices course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found themselves in this hypothetical reporter's shoes, working through a series of ethical questions involved in the newsgathering situation by way of an online case-study module.

The situational case study, presented in a "choose your own adventure" style format, is an example of how faculty and teaching staff across the UW campus are using technology to enhance students' learning experiences.

"We know how to teach them to write a lead [to a news story], but it's hard to approximate getting them to think on their feet and evaluate sources of information," says Michael Mirer, the lead teaching assistant for J202 this spring, who used the case-study scenario in class last semester.

A campuswide effort called Educational Innovation is prompting the development of new and different ways of teaching. While some of that involves top-to-bottom changes to programs or classes, many faculty and teaching staff find smaller-scale exercises such as the journalism case study can be just as enriching.

The module was developed by  Katy Culver , assistant professor of journalism and mass communication, with Mitchell Bard, the lead teaching assistant in the fall semester, and a team from the  Division of Information Technology (DoIT), led by Ron Cramer, senior learning technology consultant within DoIT's  Academic Technology  group.

Students used the journalism case-study module for the first time in the fall semester. In past semesters, they would have read about a real-life case study and discussed it in a lab for the course.

"There was nothing wrong with those discussions, but I don't really know if they stuck, because the students hadn't gone through the reasoning," Culver says.

Throughout the reporting scenario, students meet different people to interview and make decisions about what path is most likely to produce a solid story. For example, talking to bartenders and hotel workers leads students down a dead end without reliable information, but conversations with the hotel manager and the police public relations officer put the reporter on the right path.

At the same time, the reporter's editor is sending text messages that demand a story as soon as possible. Students learn not only about the deadline pressure of journalism, but also about the reporter's responsibility to decide when there's enough information to publish a credible story.

"I liked talking about it this way. 'When do you go with it? When do you have enough? When are you confident you have the truth?' Sometimes it's OK not to report — sometimes you don't have it," Mirer says.

Culver has developed a range of blended learning activities for J202 to maximize students' time in and out of class, and earlier this year she approached DoIT Academic Technology about developing a situated learning experience.

Cramer suggested using DoIT Academic Technology's " Case Scenario/Critical Reader " tool.

"When I saw it for the first time in the summer, the example was for medical students — you're a gynecology resident and the woman presents with this or that," Bard says. "What could be more different than what we're doing? But it was immediately obvious that this would work for us."

The idea for the journalism case study, which takes about 15 minutes for students to complete, started on one sheet of paper with Culver and Bard's initial ideas for what might work. The story expanded to bigger sheets of paper and an elaborate backstory the pair developed, even as they resisted the urge to broaden the exercise.

And to be compelling, the scenario also needed to follow a design framework developed by DoIT Academic Technology called "the seven Cs": content, context, challenge, characters, choices, consequences and connections.

"The biggest challenge is getting all pieces into something that's a cohesive narrative and meets the learning objective," Cramer says.

People who are interested in developing a situational-case scenario can contact DoIT Academic Technology to learn more, Cramer says.

Story by Stacy Forster, University Communications

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• Online Violence Big Data Case Studies

Nearly three out of four women journalists surveyed globally by ICFJ and UNESCO in 2020 reported experiencing online violence, which frequently operates at the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination and disinformation. Alarmingly, 20% of the women surveyed said that they had experienced physical attacks, harassment and abuse connected to the online violence they endure. As part of our commitment to better understand, respond to and prevent such attacks, ICFJ partnered with University of Sheffield computer scientists to produce pioneering big data case studies on targeted women journalists. The case study subjects have suffered intense, prolonged and coordinated attacks that are emblematic of online violence against women journalists in their regions.  To date, ICFJ and our partners have conducted in-depth studies of women journalists in seven countries and analyzed 18 million social media posts directed at them. The novel interdisciplinary research approach involves blending computational linguistics (Natural Language Processing), machine learning, and network analysis with contextual field research, including long-form interviews with the targeted women. The aim is to provide a solid evidence base to correlate the experiences of the women journalists studied with hard data to determine the characteristics, methods and escalation points associated with online violence campaigns that are designed to terrify the women targeted and chill their journalism. See below for links to these case studies, led by our deputy vice president for global research, Dr. Julie Posetti.

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This case study was published as part of Forbidden Stories ' Story Killers project.

To be published in 2024:

• Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta
• Marianna Spring, UK

Expert trainers with regional knowledge will lead 1.5-hour classes on the following topics: audio/podcasts, video, content design, strategic communications and audience engagement.

All sessions will be online.

The conference kicks off in February with keynote talks on the anatomy of disinformation in each of the target regions. Following the conference, participants who attend at least three of the five sessions will be eligible to apply for grants and mentorship to develop innovative multimedia projects that break new ground in spreading factual information.

CONFERENCE KICK-OFF KEYNOTE

February 23

Anatomy of Virality: How Disinfo is Spread & How We Can Make Truth Viral

Axel Bruns, xxx

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Topic: Video

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Carmen aristegui: a prime target of online violence in the deadliest country to practice journalism outside a war zone, new research illuminates escalating online violence on musk’s twitter, how disinformation fuels online violence storms targeting women journalists, contact info.

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Crowdsourcing investigative journalism: a case study (part 1)

As I begin on a new Help Me Investigate project , I thought it was a good time to share some research I conducted into the first year of the site, and the key factors in how that project tried to crowdsource investigative and watchdog journalism.

The findings of this research have been key to the development of this new project. They also form the basis of a chapter in the book Face The Future , and another due to be published in the Handbook of Online Journalism next year (not to be confused with my own Online Journalism Handbook ). Here’s the report:

In both academic and mainstream literature about the world wide web, one theme consistently recurs: the lowering of the barrier allowing individuals to collaborate in pursuit of a common goal. Whether it is creating the world’s biggest encyclopedia ( Lih, 2009 ), spreading news about a protest (Morozov, 2011) or tracking down a stolen phone (Shirky, 2008), the rise of the network has seen a decline in the role of the formal organisation, including news organisations.

Two examples of this phenomenon were identified while researching a book chapter on investigative journalism and blogs (De Burgh, 2008). The first was an experiment by The Florida News Press: when it started receiving calls from readers complaining about high water and sewage connection charges for newly constructed homes the newspaper, short on in-house resources to investigate the leads, decided to ask their readers to help. The result is by now familiar as a textbook example of “crowdsourcing” – outsourcing a project to ‘the crowd’ or what Brogan & Smith (2009, p136) describe as “the ability to have access to many people at a time and to have them perform one small task each”:

“Readers spontaneously organized their own investigations: Retired engineers analyzed blueprints, accountants pored over balance sheets, and an inside whistle-blower leaked documents showing evidence of bid-rigging.” ( Howe, 2006a )

The second example concerned contaminated pet food in the US, and did not involve a mainstream news organisation. In fact, it was frustration with poor mainstream ‘churnalism’ (see Davies, 2009) that motivated bloggers and internet users to start digging into the story. The resulting output from dozens of blogs ranged from useful information for pet owners and the latest news to the compilation of a database that suggested the official numbers of pet deaths recorded by the US Food and Drug Administration was short by several thousand. One site, Itchmo.com, became so popular that it was banned in China, the source of the pet food in question.

What was striking about both examples was not simply that people could organise to produce investigative journalism, but that this practice of ‘crowdsourcing’ had two key qualities that were particularly relevant to journalism’s role in a democracy. The first was engagement: in the case of the News-Press for six weeks the story generated more traffic to its website than “ever before, excepting hurricanes” ( Weise, 2007 ). Given that investigative journalism often concerns very ‘dry’ subject matter that has to be made appealing to a wider audience, these figures were surprising – and encouraging for publishers.

The second quality was subject: the contaminated pet food story was, in terms of mainstream news values, unfashionable and unjustifiable in terms of investment of resources. It appeared that the crowdsourcing model of investigation might provide a way to investigate stories which were in the public interest but which commercial and public service news organisations would not consider worth their time. More broadly, research on crowdsourcing more generally suggested that it worked “best in areas that are not core to your product or central to your business model” (Tapscott and Williams, 2006, p82).

Investigative journalism: its history and discourses

DeBurgh (2008, p10) defines investigative journalism as “distinct from apparently similar work [of discovering truth and identifying lapses from it] done by police, lawyers and auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and usually earns money for media publishers.” The term is notoriously problematic and contested: some argue that all journalism is investigative, or that the recent popularity of the term indicates the failure of ‘normal’ journalism to maintain investigative standards. This contestation is a symptom of the various factors underlying the growth of the genre, which range from journalists’ own sense of a democratic role, to professional ambition and publishers’ commercial and marketing objectives.

More recently investigative journalism has been used to defend traditional print journalism against online publishing, with publishers arguing that true investigative journalism cannot be maintained without the resources of a print operation. This position has become harder to defend as online-only operations and journalists have won increasing numbers of awards for their investigative work – Clare Sambrook in the UK and VoiceOfSanDiego.com and Talking Points Memo in the US are three examples – while new organisations have been established to pursue investigations without any associated print operation including Canada’s OpenFile; the UK’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism and a number of bodies in the US such as ProPublica, The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Huffington Post’s investigative unit.

In addition, computer technology has started to play an increasingly important role in print investigative journalism: Stephen Grey’s investigation into the CIA’s ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme (Grey, 2006) was facilitated by the use of software such as Analyst’s Notebook, which allowed him to analyse large amounts of flight data and identify leads. The Telegraph’s investigation into MPs’ expenses was made possible by digitisation of data and the ability to store large amounts on a small memory stick. And newspapers around the world collaborated with the Wikileaks website to analyse ‘warlogs’ from Iraq and Afghanistan, and hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. More broadly the success of Wikipedia inspired a raft of examples of ‘ Wiki journalism ’ where users were invited to contribute to editorial coverage of a particular issue or field, with varying degrees of success.

Meanwhile, investigative journalists such as The Guardian’s Paul Lewis have been exploring a more informal form of crowdsourcing, working with online communities to break stories including the role of police in the death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson; the existence of undercover agents in the environmental protest movement; and the death of a man being deported to Angola (Belam, 2011b).

This is part of a broader move to networked journalism explored by Charlie Beckett (2008):

“In a world of ever-increasing media manipulation by government and business, it is even more important for investigative journalists to use technology and connectivity to reveal hidden truths. Networked journalists are open, interactive and share the process. Instead of gatekeepers they are facilitators: the public become co-producers. Networked journalists “are ‘medium agnostic’ and ‘story-centric’”. The process is faster and the information sticks around longer.” (2008, p147)

As one of its best-known practitioners Paul Lewis talks particularly of the role of technology in his investigations – specifically Twitter – but also the importance of the crowd itself and journalistic method:

“A crucial factor that makes crowd-sourcing a success [was that] there was a reason for people to help, in this case a perceived sense of injustice and that the official version of events did not tally with the truth. Six days after Tomlinson’s death, Paul had twenty reliable witnesses who could be placed on a map at the time of the incident – and only one of them had come from the traditional journalistic tool of a contact number in his notebook.” (Belam, 2011b)

A further key skill identified by Lewis is listening to the crowd – although he sounds a note of caution in its vulnerability to deliberately placed misinformation, and the need for verification.

“Crowd-sourcing doesn’t always work […] The most common thing is that you try, and you don’t find the information you want […] The pattern of movement of information on the internet is something journalists need to get their heads around. Individuals on the web in a crowd seem to behave like a flock of starlings – and you can’t control their direction.” (Belam, 2011b)

Conceptualising Help Me Investigate

The first plans for Help Me Investigate were made in 2008 and were further developed over the next 18 months. They built on research into crowdsourced investigative journalism, as well as other research into online journalism and community management. In particular the project sought to explore concepts of “P2P journalism” which enables “more engaged interaction between and amongst users” (Bruns, 2005, p120, emphasis in original) and of “produsage”, whose affordances included probabilistic problem solving, granular tasks, equipotentiality, and shared content (Bruns, 2008, p19).

A key feature in this was the ownership of the news agenda by users themselves (who could be either members of the public or journalists). This was partly for reasons identified above in research into the crowdsourced investigation into contaminated pet food. It would allow the site to identify questions that would not be considered viable for investigation within a traditional newsroom; but the feature was also implemented because ‘ownership’ was a key area of contestation identified within crowdsourcing research (Lih, 2009; Benkler, 2006; Surowiecki, 2005) – ‘outsourcing’ a project to a group of people raises obvious issues regarding claims of authorship, direction and benefits (Bruns, 2005).

These issues were considered carefully by the founders. The site adopted a user interface with three main modes of navigation for investigations: most-recent-top; most popular (those investigations with the most members); and two ‘featured’ investigations chosen by site staff: these were chosen on the basis that they were the most interesting editorially, or because they were attracting particular interest and activity from users at that moment. There was therefore an editorial role, but this was limited to only two of the 18 investigations listed on the ‘Investigations’ page, and was at least partly guided by user activity.

In addition there were further pages where users could explore investigations through different criteria such as those investigations that had been completed, or those investigations with particular tags (e.g. ‘environment’, ‘Bristol’, ‘FOI’, etc.).

A second feature of the site was that ‘journalism’ was intended to be a by-product: the investigation process itself was the primary objective, which would inform users, as research suggested that if users were to be attracted to the site, it must perform the function that they needed it to (Porter, 2008), which was – as became apparent – one of project management. The ‘problem’ that the site was attempting to ‘solve’ needed to be user-centric rather than publisher-centric: ‘telling stories’ would clearly be lower down the priority list for users than it was for journalists and publishers. Of higher priority were the need to break down a question into manageable pieces; find others to investigate those with; and get answers. This was eventually summarised in the strapline to the site: “Connect, mobilise, uncover”.

Thirdly, there was a decision to use ‘game mechanics’ that would make the process of investigation inherently rewarding. As the site and its users grew, the interface was changed so that challenges started on the left hand side of the screen, coloured red, then moved to the middle when accepted (the colour changing to amber), and finally to the right column when complete (now with green border and tick icon). This made it easier to see at a glance what needed doing and what had been achieved, and also introduced a level of innate satisfaction in the task. Users, the idea went, might grow to like to feeling of moving those little blocks across the screen, and the positive feedback (see Graham, 2010 and Dondlinger, 2007) provided by the interface.

Similar techniques were coincidentally explored at the same time by The Guardian’s MPs’ expenses app ( Bradshaw, 2009 ). This provided an interface for users to investigate MP expense claim forms that used many conventions of game design, including a ‘progress bar’, leaderboards, and button-based interfaces. A second iteration of the app – created when a second batch of claim forms were released – saw a redesigned interface based on a stronger emphasis on positive feedback. As developer Martin Belam explains ( 2011a ):

“When a second batch of documents were released, the team working on the app broke them down into much smaller assignments. That meant it was easier for a small contribution to push the totals along, and we didn’t get bogged down with the inertia of visibly seeing that there was a lot of documents still to process. “By breaking it down into those smaller tasks, and staggering their start time, you concentrated all of the people taking part on one goal at a time. They could therefore see the progress dial for that individual goal move much faster than if you only showed the progress across the whole set of documents.”

These game mechanics are not limited to games: many social networking sites have borrowed the conventions to provide similar positive feedback to users. Jon Hickman (2010, p2) describes how Help Me Investigate uses these genre codes and conventions:

“In the same way that Twitter records numbers of “followers”, “tweets”, “following” and “listed”, Help Me Investigate records the number of “things” which the user is currently involved in investigating, plus the number of “challenges”, “updates” and “completed investigations” they have to their credit. In both Twitter and Help Me Investigate these labels have a mechanistic function: they act as hyperlinks to more information related to the user’s profile. They can also be considered culturally as symbolic references to the user’s social value to the network – they give a number and weight to the level of activity the user has achieved, and so can be used in informal ranking of the user’s worth, importance and usefulness within the network.” (2010, p8)

This was indeed the aim of the site design, and was related to a further aim of the site: to allow users to build ‘social capital’ within and through the site: users could add links to web presences and Twitter accounts, as well as add biographies and ‘tag’ themselves. They were also ranked in a ‘Most active’ table; and each investigation had its own graph of user activity. This meant that users might use the site not simply for information-gathering reasons, but also for reputation building ones, a characteristic of open source communities identified by Bruns (2005) and Leadbeater (2008) among others.

There were plans to take these ideas much further which were shelved during the proof of concept phase as the team concentrated on core functionality. For example, it was clear that users needed to be able to give other users praise for positive contributions, and they used the ‘update feature’ to do so. A more intuitive function allowing users to give a ‘thumbs up’ to a contribution would have made this easier, and also provided a way to establish the reputation of individual users, and encourage further use.

Another feature of the site’s construction was a networked rather than centralised design. The bid document to 4iP proposed to aggregate users’ material:

“via RSS and providing support to get users onto use web-based services. While the technology will facilitate community creation around investigations, the core strategy will be community-driven, ‘recruiting’ and supporting alpha users who can drive the site and community forward.”

Again, this aggregation functionality was dropped as part of focusing the initial version of the site. However, the basic principle of working within a network was retained, with many investigations including a challenge to blog about progress on other sites, or use external social networks to find possible contributors. The site included guidance on using tools elsewhere on the web, and many investigations linked to users’ blog posts.

In the second part I discuss the building of the site and reflections on the site’s initial few months .

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20 thoughts on “ crowdsourcing investigative journalism: a case study (part 1) ”.

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IMPRESSED WITH YOUR WORK.

Good to see this on the blog and in the public eye! It really helped me write out my dissertation and just doing that showed how influential Help Me Investigate is and will be in developing, manipulating and advancing crowdsourced investigative journalism. Excited for the future!

hi Ben Harrow i have a dissertation to make on Investigative journalism . i need to submit the Review of Literature in 3days, if u could please send me some case studies on investigative journalism, it would really help me . please mail me at ‘[email protected]’

If you’ve only given yourself three days to complete a literature review, you’re probably leaving it too late! Most research has a literature review of some sort embedded in the first section – this post is no exception: you’ll find links to literature at the start.

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I wish you’d get to the point a bit quicker

I wanted to read this, but gave up

That’s academic writing for you – skip to the further parts, they’re more fun.

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The effect of online journalism on the freedom of the press: the case of Kuwait

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Most Nevada District Courts don’t offer case information online, study says

Nevadans also face inconsistent policies when it comes to paying for court records, the study co-sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal found.

Fifteen of Nevada’s 17 district courts do not provide online access to case information, and only one allows the public to see documents online, according to a report released this week.

The report, which was commissioned by the Nevada Open Government Coalition and co-sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, found that courts are trying to improve access, but that they face barriers due to a lack of funding and staff time.

The state’s Administrative Office of the Courts is using $25 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan to expand electronic filing of court documents, but it’s not a given that it will also give the public online access, according to a news release from the coalition. And policies for when people have to pay for records are inconsistent.

“The right to access court proceedings is a fundamental tenet of our democracy and the fair adjudication of justice,” the report said. “Yet far too often, members of the public, the media and advocacy groups face barriers and challenges seeking information about legal matters processed by state and federal court systems.”

District courts in Nevada handle lawsuits, criminal cases and divorces. They are not unified, but are run through local governments.

The coalition said it began surveying court staff in February and discovered “a patchwork of policies and rules that can complicate the public’s ability to obtain court records.”

In Clark County, the District Court provides full online access, which means the public can see case information and documents online. Washoe County has online access to case information, but a separate process to get the records.

None of the other District Courts have a way for the public to see records online, but all of them have a remote option, like email or fax, which the report said is important in rural counties where courthouses can be far from where people live.

Change may be coming. The Pershing County District Court hopes to have an online system in the next five years, according to the report. The Churchill County District Court expects to have a new system that will allow case and calendar searches sometime this year.

Fees for records remain a barrier, though, and policies for them are also inconsistent. Some courts, like the Lincoln County District Court, said they don’t waive fees. Others, such as the Douglas County District Court, waive them for government. The Humboldt County District Court said it waives them depending on the case.

Journalist Daniel Rothberg conducted the research for the report, which was also sponsored by The Nevada Independent, Our Nevada Judges and This is Reno.

Contact Noble Brigham at [email protected] . Follow @BrighamNoble on X.

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